The federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has scheduled a June 13 meeting in Idaho to consider key technical issues to be dealt with prior to transport of radioactive waste from around the country for interim storage or permanent disposal.
The meeting could lead to recommendations to Congress and Energy Secretary Rick Perry as they wrestle with the long impasse in dealing with the nation’s radioactive waste.
The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires the Department of Energy to establish a permanent resting place for what is now tens of thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors. In 1987, Congress designated Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the location for the geologic repository, though that site remains heavily contested.
In the ongoing absence of a repository, consolidating nuclear power plants’ waste to a small number of locations has been seen as an opportunity for DOE to meet its legal mandate. Plans are underway for establishing temporary storage facilities in remote areas of southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. Any storage or disposal facility would require a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“Before the waste is moved from where it is now to another location, it will be necessary for DOE to complete the development of an integrated waste management program to support transporting the waste,” the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board said in an April 26 press release. “At its meeting, the Board will consider technical issues that need to be addressed in preparing for such a transportation effort.”
The board is looking only at technical activities that must be conducted before DOE begins a large-scale radioactive waste transportation program, senior professional staff member Daniel Ogg said. That will exclude issues of funding, policy, or waste siting, he said.
Among the topics that could be considered, Ogg said, are: development of computer models to assist DOE’s design of the comprehensive waste management system; criticality safety of dual-purpose casks containing; and lessons learned from prior DOE transport operations for other forms of radioactive waste.
The Department of Energy website still lists a four-part integrated radioactive waste management system dating to the Obama administration: pilot interim storage facilities, full-scale consolidated interim storage facilities, geologic repositories, and transportation infrastructure to move the waste. However, that is part of DOE’s prior “consent-based siting” approach to which the Trump administration has not committed.
The daylong board meeting will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn, 700 Lindsay Blvd. in Idaho Falls. Participants will include DOE officials and representatives from the commercial nuclear industry, among others.
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is an independent agency within the Executive Branch tasked with offering expert guidance to Congress and the secretary of energy on management of spent fuel and high-level waste.
The upcoming meeting will be the beginning of the board’s evaluation, which it initiated at its discretion and could involve additional public meetings. There is no set end date for the process, Ogg said.
“The Board reviews DOE’s preparation for the transportation of spent fuel and HLW as part of its ongoing review of DOE’s activities,” NWTRB Executive Director Nigel Mote told RadWaste Monitor by email. “Following the Board meeting, the Board will consider presenting its findings and recommendations to DOE in a letter or a report.”
