South Carolina would consider deep borehole disposal of radioactive spent nuclear fuel as part of a federal nuclear lifecycle hub program; the state Department of Commerce told the Department of Energy earlier this year.
That is according to a news release last week from the Savannah River Site Watch nuclear watchdog group, following a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
SRS Watch is a public interest group that monitors goings on at DOE’s Savannah River Site and South Carolina’s nuclear industry. It made public South Carolina’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus application package. DOE is expected to start announcing its early selections for the lifecycle hub campus any week now.
“South Carolina is interested in exploring the potential role emerging technologies may play in the future of nuclear-fuel management, including concepts such as deep borehole disposal as a potential pathway for long-term isolation,” according to a March submission to DOE from the state Commerce Department. SRS Watch obtained the materials via its FOIA.
The state agency is advancing the borehole option to DOE absent public comment or support, according to the July 17 SRS Watch news release.
“The poorly-thought-out scheme to look into spent fuel disposal in boreholes in South Carolina should be immediately withdrawn as it could hold significant environmental, health and cost downsides that the people of South Carolina won’t tolerate,” SRS Watch Director Tom Clements said in the release.
“We feel obligated to publicly release the document as the Department of Commerce has failed to act in the public interest and make it widely available,” said Clements.
“The Innovation Campus will integrate a primary cluster of assets in Aiken and Barnwell Counties (with potential sites at the federally owned Savannah River Site (SRS) and in adjacent areas) connected to existing statewide satellite locations, including commercial fuel fabrication in Columbia, operating reactor sites, university research centers and testbeds, and port infrastructure in Charleston and Savannah, Georgia,” according to the South Carolina package.