The Department of Energy and Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) announced late Tuesday they have agreed to a “targeted waiver” of certain aspects of a 1995 settlement agreement designed to expedite removal of old spent nuclear fuel from Idaho National Laboratory.
The agreement, which was later modified in 2019, calls for removal of most spent nuclear fuel from the laboratory by 2035.
The parties said in a news release the waiver will assist key research on a high burnup nuclear fuel cask taken from a commercial nuclear power plant. The research will provide data as licenses are extended to support the extended storage of spent fuel at 54 nuclear power units in 28 states.
With cancellation of the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository in the Barack Obama administration, there is no federal underground disposal site on the horizon.
“The collaborative effort between the State of Idaho, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Idaho National Laboratory showcases our commitment to advancing nuclear energy research while upholding the goals of the 1995 Settlement Agreement,” Little said in the joint press release. “We are proud to support innovation in nuclear energy that will support national security and energy independence into the future,” he added.
The governor and the Idaho lab director Thursday issued an opinion piece touting the benefits of the deal.
This is a one-time waiver that basically clears the way for a cask of high-burnup fuel from the Dominion Energy North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia to come to DOE Idaho National Laboratory for research purposes, a lab spokesperson said by phone Thursday.
The one-time waiver allows DOE to exceed the annual limit of 400 kilograms of spent fuel that can be brought into the state annually under a 2011 memorandum of understanding attached to the settlement agreement, according to a laboratory spokesperson.
The shipment itself would still have to pass muster with an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, according to the spokesperson.
A DOE backgrounder on the settlement agreement is available online. The settlement included not only DOE and Idaho but the U.S. Navy, which has its Naval Reactor Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory. The agreement also addresses relocation of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico as well as an Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at Idaho National Lab to solidify liquid sodium-bearing waste into a granular form.
