A coalition of 60 advocacy groups is calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to freeze the comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The proceeding should be suspended until the end of the federal public health emergency for novel coronavirus 2019, and then extended for 180 days, according to a July 8 letter to the five NRC commissioners from organizations including the Sierra Club, Beyond Nuclear, Public Citizen-Texas, four chapters of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, and Tri-Valley CAREs. The signatories in total represent groups from 22 states.
When it is safe, public meetings should also be conducted in six Texas communities, the letter says: San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, El Paso, Midland, and Andrews. Meetings should also be held in cities that would be along transport routes for the spent fuel from nuclear power plants to Texas, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, New York, Pittsburgh St. Louis, and Salt Lake City.
“The undersigned 60 groups seek these changes in the public participation arrangements because of the serious present public health emergency, during which much of the American public is beset with concerns of maintaining individual and family health, free of the coronavirus,” the letter says. “Americans are still facing, in unprecedented numbers, sudden dramatic economic reversals and dislocations associated with global recession or even economic depression.”
Interim Storage Partners, a joint venture of Orano and Waste Control Specialists, is seeking a 40-year NRC license for storage of up to 5,000 metric tons of spent fuel in Andrews County, Texas. The facility could ultimately hold 40,000 metric tons for 120 years.
In the draft environmental impact statement issued in May, NRC staff preliminarily recommended approval of the license. Publication of the document started the clock on a 120-day comment period. The agency currently expects by next summer to complete the final EIS and other aspects of its technical review of the application, which would be followed by a decision on licensing. However, it has acknowledged potential impacts on that schedule from COVID-19, and is already considering a request for an extension to the comment period from Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas).
