Department of Energy starts search for spent fuel repositoryDec 23 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Derrek Asberry Aiken Standard, S.C.
The Department of Energy has officially started searching for states and communities interested in housing the nation's nuclear spent fuel. Execution of this approach would officially reverse the controversial Yucca Mountain project, which was expected to house defense and commercial materials and remove waste from sites around the nation, including the Savannah River Site and four nuclear power plants in South Carolina. A Monday announcement from Franklin Orr, the under secretary for science and energy, states that the consent-based approach would need a pilot interim storage facility, a larger interim storage facility and long-term geologic repositories. "To support each of these elements of an integrated waste management system, the strategy also emphasizes the importance of a consent-based approach to siting waste storage and disposal facilities throughout the decision making process," Orr said. The Department of Energy will move forward by hosting public meetings across the country in 2016, according to Orr. Those interested in commenting about the process can email the Department of Energy at consentbasedsiting@hq.doe.gov. Monday's notice comes on the heels of a similar announcement in March in which President Barack Obama authorized a search for separate material repositories for high-level radioactive nuclear weapon-related waste and spent nuclear fuel rods from commercial electric generation. The Savannah River Site houses spent fuel and nuclear waste. Numbers reported in March indicate that under the plan, defense waste from three weapons-related facilities -- SRS, the Hanford Site in Washington state and Idaho National Lab -- would be sent to a repository. Together, the facilities house an estimated 23,294 canisters of glassified waste, with SRS holding 7,824 canisters, according to March numbers. Since then, liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation reported that it has produced an additional 93 canisters of the material, which is a waste form that is suitable for long-term storage at a repository. In 2010, Obama ordered work on Nevada's Yucca Mountain project to cease, leaving $13 billion of work on the table. Since then, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has produced several reports indicating that Yucca Mountain is a viable location for storage; however, the federal government is pressing forward with the consent-based approach. A few states, including New Mexico and Texas, have already shown interest following the March announcement. But Chaney Adams, a spokesperson for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, said in May that the governor is committed to not bringing in more shipments of nuclear waste or fuel to the Palmetto State. "Gov. Haley has been clear on this issue since taking office -- South Carolina's taxpayers have paid for Yucca Mountain, and it should be completed and opened," Adams said. Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter with the Aiken Standard. He joined the paper in June 2013.
|