Conservation groups are speaking out against a venture capitalist’s plan to build and operate an interim spent nuclear fuel storage and reprocessing facility in South Carolina.
Savannah River Site Watch, the South Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club, and the League of Women Voters of South Carolina issued a press release Tuesday ripping Mike Stake’s plan to reprocess spent fuel from the state’s nuclear reactors at a facility planned near the Savannah River Site in Aiken.
The groups argued that moving spent fuel from South Carolina’s nuclear reactors to a single, non-reactor site is “unnecessary” and “would do nothing” to solve spent fuel management issues around the country.
“Given that there is no demonstrated need to remove spent fuel from the four nuclear plant sites in South Carolina, the groups believe that the effort to license a consolidated storage facility will face strong public opposition and must be halted,” the three groups stated
Stake, owner of personal concierge and handyman service Everything at Stake and chairman of the Aiken County Tea Party, formed the new company Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Group with direction from a board of nuclear specialists. The group announced its intention to submit an application for a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in a July 26 letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency encouraged Stake to hold pre-application meetings with NRC staff as his group gets closer to a submittal date.
Stake told RadWaste Monitor by email Tuesday that he “will share (information about the opposition) with the other team members and we will reach out to those groups (in opposition).” He explained that the Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Group’s “initial pilot program” is focused on in-state waste. South Carolina has accumulated more than 4,200 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel in storage, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.
South Carolina is home to five nuclear reactors owned by South Carolina Electric & Gas and Duke Energy.
SCE&G spokeswoman Rhonda O’Banion said by email Tuesday: “We’re not familiar with (Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Group’s) plans, but what I can tell you is that SCE&G has safely and securely stored used fuel on site at (the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station) over the years and can continue to do so as long as needed.”
Duke Energy spokeswoman Rita Sipe said the company is also unaware of Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Group’s plans and declined to comment.
South Carolina Sierra Club Executive Committee Chair Chris Hall called on Gov. Nikki Haley and elected officials to inform the public, “which grows ever-skeptical about nuclear waste disposal in the state.” South Carolina is currently suing the Department of Energy for up to $100 million, demanding that it remove some weapon-grade plutonium from the Savannah River Site.
The conservationists argue that reprocessing fuel from the commercial reactors is “uneconomical,” as evidenced by SRS reprocessing that “has left an enduring legacy of nuclear waste yet to be cleaned up.”
“There is no justification whatsoever to consolidate spent fuel at the Barnwell site as it would only increase risks and cost and do nothing to solve the spent fuel crisis that has developed,” Suzanne Rhodes, of the South Carolina League of Women Voters, said in the statement.
