Gearing up to do an Environmental Impact Statement on the storage of spent nuclear fuel for up to hundreds of years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a draft report yesterday on key assumptions for the study. The NRC “is anticipating that spent nuclear fuel will be stored longer than originally intended because of the uncertainties in the national strategy for disposing of spent nuclear fuel,” according to the report, which stems from a Commission waste confidence decision in 2010 that states that spent fuel can be stored on site up to 60 years beyond the life of the reactor. “At that time, the Commission also directed the staff to develop a long-term update of the decision and rule that would address impacts of storage beyond a 120-year timeframe,” the report states.
Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Vol. 22 No. 08
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Morning Briefing
Article of 11
March 17, 2014
NRC RELEASES DRAFT ENVIRO. REPORT ON EXTENDED SNF STORAGE
Yesterday’s report is a preliminary step in the development of an EIS, which is tentatively scheduled for publication between 2017 and 2019. It states that the EIS will take into account four scenarios for extended storage. Those include storage at reactor sites, shipment to regional storage facilities, shipment to one centralized storage facility and shipment to a reprocessing facility. The NRC plans to gather public comments on the draft and in April 2012 publish a final report on background and preliminary assumptions for an EIS on long-term waste confidence. “In the coming years, the staff will explore in more depth the potential safety and environmental issues associated with extending spent fuel storage times beyond the timeframes considered in the 2010 Waste Confidence decision and rule,” the report states.
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