Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/24/2014
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Waste Confidence final ruling should occur no later than Oct. 3, the NRC said this week. Originally, the schedule had called for the release of the final ruling in September of 2014, but the government shutdown last year caused delays in the public meeting schedule causing several meetings to be rescheduled. “Waste confidence remains a high agency priority,” NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said in a statement. “Our staff will continue to work aggressively to meet its schedule milestones and come as close as possible to meeting the original deadline. However, it’s important for the public and our licensees to know now that, due to unanticipated events, the staff may need some extra time to give the array of public comments the attention they deserve.”
The NRC’s proposed waste confidence ruling, released in June, found that spent fuel can be stored on site for 60 years past a reactor’s licensed life. When the NRC first issued a revised waste confidence rule in 2010, the Commission extended the length of time assumed to be safe for storage of spent fuel at a reactor site from 30 to 60 years. Last year, though, a federal court found the NRC’s rule deficient and mandated an updated version, along with an environmental impact statement. The public comment period lasted for 98 days, ending on Dec. 20, 2013. The NRC received more than 33,000 written comments along with comments made at 13 public meetings.