An industry executive agreed Wednesday that concerns over transportation of spent nuclear fuel could impact the Department of Energy’s deadlines for moving that material into consolidated interim storage.
DOE in December rolled out plans for the operation of a pilot storage facility by 2021; one or more larger, interim facilities by 2025; and finally at least one permanent geologic repository by 2048. Waste Control Specialists and Holtec International plan to build interim facilities in, respectively, Texas and New Mexico.
Kent Cole, president and CEO of NAC International, a nuclear fuel cycle consulting and technology company, appeared on a panel at the 2016 Nuclear Industry Summit in Washington, D.C. He was asked whether concerns over transportation of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste through corridor communities could impact DOE meeting those deadlines.
“It’s a legitimate concern,” Cole said. “We need to demonstrate that there’s a lot of stakeholders that are out there. We need to be prepared early to engage them on plans for interim storage. There’s also a number of investments that we need to make before we’re able to move any fuel, and we need to get that underway promptly in order to meet the targets that people are talking about on consolidated interim storage.”
Acting Assistant DOE Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek has said the department is preparing transportation plans so that it’s ready to move if and when Congress gives it the green light. In 2013, DOE set the goal of having transportation ready for a pilot facility within 10 years. While the department has not outlined exact transportation details, it said then that logistics for the department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico have been successful, and infrastructure and lessons learned from that method will be used moving forward.