The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year extension of storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.
DOE submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review of the application. The regulator informed DOE’s Idaho office on May 5 that “the NRC has determined that the renewal application contains sufficient information for the NRC to begin its technical review and the application is acceptable for docketing,” according to a Federal Register notice posted Friday.
The license covers the Three Mile Island Unit 2 Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory. It is currently due to expire on March 19, 2019; renewal would extend the end date to March 19, 2039.
Waste at Idaho from the shuttered Unit 2 of the Middletown, Pa., nuclear power plant, which partially melted down in March 1979, includes fuel assemblies, control rods, and different storage canisters for the debris. No additional radioactive material would be added to the ISFSI if the license is extended, the NRC said.
“The NRC will approve the license renewal application if it determines that the application meets the standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the NRC’s regulations. These findings will be documented in a safety evaluation report,” according to the Federal Register notice.
NRC staff will also determine whether an environmental impact statement is necessary for the license extension application.
Interested parties have until Aug. 8 to request a hearing or petition to intervene in the matter, at www.regulations.gov, Docket ID NRC–2017–0136.
The Energy Department agreed in 1995 to take the waste out of Idaho by 2035, but still lacks a permanent storage site, The Associated Press reported Friday.
Exelon said last month that it anticipates closing reactor Unit 1 at Three Mile Island by Sept 30, 2019.
