The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will make a final decision about whether to license one of two proposed interim storage sites for spent nuclear fuel “shortly after” it completes environmental impact statements for the project this summer, the agency’s spent fuel licensing project manager said Tuesday.
NRC is “currently close to completing the final safety evaluation report” for the proposed Interim Storage Partners (ISP) consolidated interim storage facility in west Texas, said Jose Cuadrado, project manager at the Spent Fuel Licensing Branch of the agency’s Nuclear Material Security and Safeguards division, during a commissioners’ meeting Tuesday. The agency is also “on target” to finish up an environmental impact statement for the proposed ISP site by July, Cuadrado said.
Cuadrado didn’t say exactly when a licensing decision would be made after the environmental review is complete in July.
As for the other proposed interim storage site — Holtec International’s in southeastern New Mexico — the commission is still waiting for the company to provide additional information for a federal safety evaluation report. The agency asked Holtec for more detail on changes it made to the facility’s designs and applications, Cuadrado said. A formal request for information was sent to Holtec May 20.
Cuadrado didn’t say Tuesday how long, or whether, the information request could delay a licensing decision for the proposed Holtec site. NRC said in March that it wouldn’t be able to complete the safety evaluation in May as previously planned. The security review is a prerequisite for licensing alongside the site’s separate environmental review, which is also supposed to be done this summer, the agency has said.
