Waste Control Specialists will not need to gain unanimous consent from waste transport corridor communities for its application to operate an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas, a government affairs expert helping the company work through regulatory issues said Wednesday.
In its post-Yucca Mountain plan for nuclear waste storage, the Obama administration has focused on assuring consent from communities near where the material will be shipped and stored. The transportation aspect of the project will not require unanimous consent, Mike Callahan, president of Governmental Strategies Inc., said during a webinar hosted by Nuclear Energy Insider. The site proposed near the Texas-New Mexico border, which would have a 40-year Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to store 40,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, allowing WCS to take waste from 51 shut-down reactor sites, has already gained the support of stakeholders in Andrews County, Texas. The facility would be located in the county within WCS’ waste storage complex.
Consent, Callahan said, will be given through the scope of Department of Transportation regulations, with state input in determining routes, training, and first response procedures.
“Somebody asked, ‘Is consent required?’” Callahan said. “If consent means unanimity, you’re not going to have that. If consent means that states are satisfied that the regulations are being met and their role in the context of those regulations is being addressed and modified as it needs to be, then yes. That’s the general overview of the process in which transportation will be accomplished, and has been.”
Callahan appeared with Scott Kirk, Waste Control Specialists vice president of licensing and regulatory affairs, and
Jack Boshoven, senior adviser and project engineer for the proposal at WCS partner AREVA TN. The webinar served as a primer for Nuclear Energy Insider’s Nuclear Decommissioning & Used Fuel Strategy Summit in October, when WCS Presdent and CEO Rod Baltzer will deliver a project update.
WCS is competing with a team led by competitor Holtec International, which plans by November to submit its own license application for a 70,000-metric-ton capacity interim storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. An estimated 74,000 metric tons of commercial spent fuel have accumulated at American reactor sites as a result of the Department of Energy’s failure to take title to the waste as outlined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
Kirk said the company’s year-and-a-half effort on its Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process has produced the request for the first phase of the consolidated interim storage facility, allowing the first 5,000 metric tons of capacity. Waste Control Specialists in July requested that the NRC proceed with a notice of intent to deliver an environmental impact statement for the interim storage facility. Preparing the EIS, Kirk said, is expected to take two to three years to complete, so the company is hoping for swift action. Kirk said WCS expects a response from the NRC in the next month or so.
The NRC’s full license application review, which will entail safety, technical, and environmental assessment, is also expected to take up to three years.
Kirk touched on the competing views surrounding consolidated interim storage facility. Some people believe that such a facility, if licensed, would take the pressure off DOE ever having to build a permanent repository, he explained.
“I can understand how people might believe that, but I don’t think that’s the case. There is an obligation to build a repository,” Kirk said. “We think that the interim storage facility at WCS will help provide a permanent solution for the industry.”
“We do see support for consolidated interim storage, and we do see support for Yucca Mountain, and both of those are positions that Waste Control Specialists supports,” Callahan said. “We’re hopeful that over time there can be a resolution of moving forward with spent fuel management, at this administration’s or the next administration’s Department of Energy.”
He added that the company has been encouraged by the Obama administration’s Energy Department and its interaction with the Senate, particularly in March when Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz indicated the agency has authority to contract with private companies in spent fuel management. Moniz has testified to Congress that WCS and Holtec would like clarity on the timing of spent fuel ownership and the potential for liabilities, which can be achieved through congressional action allowing public-private partnerships.
“That has yet to manifest itself, but that in and of itself was an encouraging response,” Callahan said, adding that success with interim storage will signal that the federal government is capable of addressing the spent fuel issue.