Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Monday expressed no objection to a 60-day extension for affected parties to request a hearing on Waste Control Specialists’ license application to build and operate a storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel.
Staff, though, opposed a 120-day extension sought by a coalition of 20 environmental and anti-nuclear organizations. There was no immediate word Tuesday on when the commission might take action on the recommendation.
Waste Control Specialists in April 2016 filed its license application for a planned site in West Texas with the capacity to hold up to 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel and reactor-related Greater Than Class C low-level waste now stranded at nuclear plants around the country. After requesting and receiving supplemental information, the NRC on Jan. 26 formally accepted the application for review; four days later it posted a Federal Register notice that set a 60-day deadline to intervene and request a hearing on the matter.
The Sierra Club on March 3 requested a 120-day extension, then withdrew the request and joined Waste Control Specialists in seeking a 60-day deadline delay. The nongovernmental Nuclear Information and Resource Service on March 10 joined 19 other groups in seeking another 120 days to file to intervene.
In its recommendation this week, NRC staff noted that Waste Control Specialists on March 16 submitted revisions to its license application, including an updated safety analysis report (SAR). “The Staff has not yet had the opportunity to determine the extent of the revisions. In light of the timing of this revision in the middle of the intervention period, the Staff does not object to a 60 day extension of the intervention period, to May 30, 2017,” according to the document. “The Staff does, however, object to an extension of 120 days. The basic framework for NRC licensing proceedings is that contentions are filed and admitted based on the application, not on any subsequent Staff review.”
