Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Tuesday suggested the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and the Nevada National Security Site could be used for interim storage for nuclear waste. That would run up against existing law in the first instance and already faces vehement opposition in the second.
In his first hearing on Capitol Hill to discuss the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget request, Perry said the Energy Department has a “moral obligation” to move the nation’s high-level radioactive waste and spent reactor fuel into safe, permanent storage. He reaffirmed the Trump administration’s position that ultimately the waste must go into the planned Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada.
Perry’s agency has requested $110 million for resuming Yucca Mountain licensing activities in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, along with $10 million for a “robust” program to consolidate tens of thousands of tons of U.S. nuclear waste into a small number of interim facilities until the permanent repository is ready.
In an exchange with House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), Perry mentioned WIPP and Waste Control Specialists’ private storage complex in West Texas as possible interim locations. He then added: “And I happen to think out at the Nevada Test Site … if we’re truly looking for the proper places to interimly store some waste, that test site has the potential to do that as well.”
Waste Control Specialists has already filed an application for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for interim storage of spent fuel from U.S. commercial reactors, though in April it asked the agency to suspend review of the application.
It was not immediately clear whether DOE is seriously considering WIPP or the Nevada National Security Site for similar storage missions. The department did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act specifically prohibits storage of spent fuel or high-level waste at the facility, which is intended for permanent storage of transuranic waste from DOE operations.
Nevada leaders, already intensely opposed to reviving the Yucca Mountain project, quickly spoke out against bringing nuclear waste into the state even on a temporary basis. “The idea of storing high-level nuclear waste at the National Security Site is ill-conceived, irresponsible, and likely illegal,” said Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) said in prepared comments. He said the Nevada Attorney General’s Office would study legal options to prevent such an eventuality.
