The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward with an environmental impact review of Waste Control Specialists’ plan to build and operate a 40,000-metric-ton consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility in West Texas, a senior NRC official told the agency’s commissioners Tuesday. The NRC has yet to accept the overall license application, however, as it continues collecting supplemental information from WCS.
The NRC in July told WCS that its 3,000-page license application lacked the technical detail required for acceptance, while issung a request for supplemental information (RSI) from the company. WCS had planned to submit all additional data by Oct. 31 but has extended that schedule to December. Commissioner Jeff Baran asked during a hearing if proceeding with the environmental review signals that agency staff anticipates accepting the application for review.
“No it does not,” responded Marc Dapas, director of the NRC Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. “We will conduct a thorough review of the application once we receive all responses for supplemental information and determine whether the application should be docketed for the safety review.”
Waste Control Specialists requested in July that the NRC take up the environmental review while also evaluating the supplemental information. NRC Spent Fuel Management Division Director Mark Lombard said at the time the agency was not ready to make a decision on that request. On Tuesday he reiterated the significance of the decision, saying the regulator has not fielded an application of this magnitude since it began conducting private fuel storage licensing action 20 years ago.
“In proceeding with the environmental review, it does not mean a foregone conclusion regarding the safety review,” Lombard said, adding that he anticipates WCS providing a complete response to the RSI, so staff can proceed with docketing. The environmental review is expected to take longer than the application’s safety review. “So we want to make sure that if we do decide to accept the application for review we’re able to complete it in three years.”
Under National Environmental Policy Act guidelines, a typical review will include analyses of impacts to air, water, animal life, vegetation, natural resources, and property of historic, archaeological, or architectural significance. The review also evaluates cumulative, economic, social, cultural, and other impacts and environmental justice.
While WCS is planning a 40,000-ton-capacity facility in West Texas, Holtec International is expected to file its own license application by March for a 70,000-metric-ton capacity facility about 12 miles from the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Lombard said NRC staff has “a strong sense that (Holtec is) following WCS’ process very closely and are monitoring our RSIs and their responses, as they develop their application.” Holtec had initially planned to submit its application in November, but extended that timeline, saying this summer it wants to submit a quality application.
Baran also asked for an update on a potential consolidated interim storage application in South Carolina, where the Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Group is exploring reprocessing spent fuel from the state’s nuclear reactors at a facility close to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken. Lombard said staff is ready to engage in pre-application meetings to understand the group’s intentions, but there have been no substantive conversations. Lombard was asked if NRC has adequate resources to perform timely reviews of all applications.
“All is kind of open-ended, so I wouldn’t say we’re ready for any or all, but we’re certainly ready to reprioritize and shuffle resources to look at a Holtec application should we receive it in the March 2017 time frame. We have looked at that,” Lombard said.
The NRC expects to spend about $1.4 million on the WCS evaluation in fiscal 2017, budget documents show. While the agency did not include any amount for a review of the Holtec license application in its fiscal 2017 budget request, officials have said they can reprioritize work to fund a second review.
