Low-level nuclear waste shipments from a Massachusetts nuclear plant being decommissioned by Holtec International won’t have to adhere to a 20-day tracking rule, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided last week.
Although NRC’s regulations say that a company shipping low-level radioactive waste to a disposal site needs to track and report shipments that don’t arrive at their final destination in 20 days, the commission granted Holtec an exemption for waste leaving Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, according to a Federal Register notice published Oct. 19. The company will only have to report shipments to NRC that don’t arrive at their destination after 45 days, the notice said.
Holtec ships low-level waste from Pilgrim to the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) disposal facility in Andrews, Texas, the notice said.
According to NRC, the company argued in an August exemption request that while a 20-day rule is adequate for truck shipments, waste from Pilgrim is sent to WCS by rail — a process that Holtec said has taken up to 56 days in the past. One reason for that delay, the company said, is because there is no direct rail access to the plant. Waste shipments from Pilgrim must be trucked to a railyard, where drivers may idle for some time before loading up a railcar. Subsequently, shipments can get stuck waiting around a railyard while a carrier waits to assemble a full train load, Holtec said.
The company also believes that “administrative processes at the disposal facility and communication of receipt times could add several additional days to shipping delays,” the notice said.
In lieu of the 20-day requirement, Holtec will use a tracking system that allows “daily monitoring of a shipment’s progress to its destination” and notify NRC if shipping takes longer than 45 days, NRC said.
NRC has granted similar exemptions to its 20-day shipping rule to San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), Fort Calhoun Station and Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.
Meanwhile, Holtec has moved about half of Pilgrim’s spent fuel inventory into dry storage. The company said in late September that 17 of the Plymouth, Mass. plant’s 34 spent fuel canisters had been transferred to an onsite storage pad. The transfer should wrap up in November, the decommissioning project manager said at the time.
Holtec acquired Pilgrim from Entergy in 2019. Decommissioning work should finish up in 2027 or so, the company has said.
