Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that the vast majority of Greater-Than-Class C low-level radioactive waste could be disposed of via a near-surface facility.
The waste, under existing federal regulations, must be interred in a geologic repository unless the federal commission approves a request for another means of disposal. The United States does not have a repository for this material and the NRC has never received a disposal request, meaning GTCC waste today remains stranded at its site of generation.
The regulator has been wrestling with the issue since receiving a query from Texas in January 2015 regarding its authority to license GTCC waste disposal as an agreement state to the NRC.
In a draft regulatory basis issued Wednesday, agency staff cited three options for addressing the matter: Leaving the current regulatory framework in place, under which the commission would consider specific requests for disposal of GTCC waste in a low-level radioactive waste site; developing new guidance, which would also sustain current regulations but might assist an applicant for GTCC waste disposal; and conducting a rulemaking that would establish regulations specifically for disposal of GTCC waste in a LLRW disposal facility.
The draft regulatory basis does not recommend any specific option. Once the document is completed, staff would seek direction from the commission on which approach to pursue, an NRC spokesman said Wednesday.
Greater-Than-Class C is any radioactive waste with radionuclide concentrations exceeding the limit for Class C low-level waste. It covers activated metals, sealed sources, and other waste types generated in commercial and government nuclear work.
Fifteen of 17 GTCC waste streams could be suitable for near-surface disposal, encompassing over 8,900 cubic meters of material, staff said. The only exceptions are sealed sources associated with neutron irradiators and certain remote-handled waste from decontamination operations at the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York, a total of 2,340 cubic meters.
There are four licensed facilities for commercial disposal of low-level radioactive waste. Only Waste Control Specialists is known to be seeking the GTCC waste business at its Andrews County, Texas, property.
