The Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Wednesday had not received word on whether Waste Control Specialists intends to move ahead with its suspended application for a spent nuclear fuel storage site in the wake of the company’s foiled merger with rival EnergySolutions.
“We have not heard of any change from WCS,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email.
The Dallas-based company in April 2016 applied for an NRC license to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility in Andrews County, Texas, with capacity to hold up to 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel now stranded at nuclear power plants around the country. However, WCS one year later asked the NRC to freeze its review of the application pending completion of its $367 million buyout by EnergySolutions, a Salt Lake City nuclear services provider.
A federal judge in June blocked the deal on antitrust grounds, accepting the Department of Justice’s contention that the merger would undercut competition in dozens of states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. The companies within days walked away from the deal, and financially troubled WCS has since then remained silent on its future plans. A spokesman did not respond to a request for comment this week.
The NRC on Thursday formally withdrew the notice of opportunity for stakeholders to request a hearing on the license application. The update, published in the Federal Register, is in line with a June 22 order from the commissioners and the wishes of Waste Control Specialists.
There had been no hearing requests to that point, though the Sierra Club, Beyond Nuclear, and Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition had indicated they might seek to intervene in the matter.
A new notice of opportunity to request a hearing would be published if Waste Control Specialists asks that the review resume, McIntyre said. Given the early stage of the evaluation – the NRC had only completed its acceptance review of the application in January – the process would still take roughly three years.