The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was urged Monday to extend consideration of updating its rules on disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) in landfills until the COVID-19 crisis has passed, or to just end the proceeding altogether.
Extending the comment period on the proposal for up to six months past the end of the pandemic was a near-unanimous refrain from representatives for environmental and other advocacy groups during a webinar on the NRC’s draft interpretative rule for VLLW disposal activities.
“I am outraged that the NRC is pushing this at this time, when people are just trying to protect their families and their lives from a worldwide pandemic. We shouldn’t be having to worry about this additional threat to our health,” said Karen Hadden, executive director of the Austin, Texas-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has also asked for an extension to the comment period.
The current deadline for comments is April 20. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was already considering a 45-day extension, but will evaluate concerns raised Monday in deciding whether to push the deadline farther out, Patricia Holahan, director of the NRC Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs, told callers.
The rule interpretation is intended to increase efficiencies and lower costs in disposal of VLLW, an informal term for the least radioactive form of Class A low-level waste, according to the NRC.
Commercial low-level waste generally must be shipped to one of four licensed facilities. But federal rules allow for an alternative disposal process, under which a generator can request authorization to ship very low-level waste on a case-by-case basis to hazardous and solid waste facilities.
The new proposal would enable the landfills to obtain an exemption that would allow them to take VLLW for land burial without the need for approval of each distinct shipment.
Similarly, a group of 50 environmental organizations on March 25 called on the NRC to extend the public comment period on the agency’s draft environmental impact statement for Holtec International’s planned facility in New Mexico for temporary centralized storage of used fuel from commercial nuclear power plants.
The draft document includes a preliminary recommendation for licensing the site in Lea County. Comments are currently being accepted through May 22, with the document to be finalized next March.
“At the formal termination of the national emergency as declared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), we request that the public comment period be extended for a period of 199 days,” the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, Beyond Nuclear, and a host of other organizations said in a letter to the regulator.
The NRC said Tuesday morning that it would make an announcement on scheduling “in the near future.”
