Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has made clear her opposition to resuming work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, while Republican Donald Trump as of last month remained undecided.
Neither camp, however, has had anything to say on the Obama administration’s alternative to Yucca Mountain — a “consent-based” approach that would establish pilot, interim, and finally permanent storage sites over the coming decades. Central to this plan is consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel, and two private companies, Waste Control Specialists and Holtec International, are pursuing plans for waste facilities in West Texas and southeast New Mexico, respectively.
Last week, DOE solicited feedback in determining what role private facilities, which need authorization to operate from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, could play under a comprehensive solution to managing the United States’ 74,000 tons of spent fuel.
Ask WCS and Holtec, and they will tell you that they are heading full steam ahead, regardless of which candidate is welcomed into the Oval Office in January.
“WCS believes there is a great deal of momentum for Consolidated Interim Storage, and we are confident that momentum will remain in place regardless of the election outcome,” Waste Control Specialists spokesman Chuck McDonald said by email Tuesday. “WCS firmly supports a geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and we believe a consolidated interim storage facility will help us get to that outcome.”
Holtec Consolidated Interim Storage Facility program director Ed Mayer said in a telephone interview Friday that the company is not wrapped up in the politics surrounding interim storage.
“We believe that interim storage is a supplement to the repository. Whether it’s a Yucca Mountain, or Yucca-like (site), interim storage has a place,” Mayer said. “We’re not focusing on the politics. We’re focusing on the national issue with storage of spent nuclear fuel.”
WCS has submitted its NRC application for a 40,000-metric-ton-capacity interim storage facility near the New Mexico border, while Holtec is eyeing a March submittal date for a 120,000-metric-ton capacity facility about 12 miles away from DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. Holtec had initially planned to store up to 70,000 metric tons, but it expanded plans, as it is developing a universal storage method, HI-STORE UMAX, which can accept all American storage canisters.
John Heaton, chair of the Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force, said in an interview Tuesday that the future of consolidated interim storage depends less on the presidential election than it does on congressional races. There has unquestionably been greater focus on the issue on Capitol Hill, where all House members and a third of the Senate are up for re-election next Tuesday.
“I don’t think it matters which candidate wins,” Heaton said. “I think they will both support it moving forward. We just have to get something to them that allows it, and that’s Congress. I don’t think it has anything to do with the president, it has to do with Congress. And these elections for Congress are frankly a lot more important than the election for president, and we need to get obstructionism out of Congress and get cooperation into it, and I don’t know how you make that happen. But the public needs to somehow understand it.”
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has said in the past that DOE can move forward with contracting private storage facilities without congressional approval, but he recently suggested the timeline would be shorter with authorization.
Heaton pointed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Republican lawmakers have been pushing for resuming the Yucca Mountain licensing process, the possibility of which is far more likely with the retirement of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has made the fight against the project a cornerstone of his legacy.
Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and panel member Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) urged Moniz in March to “expeditiously” resume the Yucca Mountain licensing process with the NRC. They also co-authored a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking for a congressional audit to see what financial resources are available to the NRC should the licensing process resume. The GAO findings are expected soon.
Meanwhile, Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) last week voiced support for consolidated interim storage. Alexander said in a statement that he hopes Congress will take the next step and pass bipartisan legislation, allowing for temporary and permanent solutions to managing waste. Alexander and panel Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced in the fiscal 2017 Senate energy and water budget bill language supporting the Energy Department’s interim storage efforts.
“I think the Senate’s been very much on board, and we seem to be having some trouble with the Energy Committee in the House,” Heaton said. “They seem to be overly focused on a single answer, and they need to be more understanding about what the whole process is, and sometimes you just can’t force an issue, even though you would like that to be the answer.”
Some lawmakers, as well as industry leaders and local residents, have argued that interim storage could transform into permanent storage, as it would remove the urgency to develop a repository. Another argument is that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act dictates that the U.S. develop its repository in Nevada, and that the administration should follow the law of the land.
“I don’t think anybody argues that we don’t need a repository,” Heaton said. “I think that is very narrow thinking about the process. It’s clear that we need a repository. Interim storage is just that, it’s interim storage until we get a repository, and I don’t think it detracts from the need for a repository.”
