Archive for the ‘WCS’ Category

Plan to bring high-level nuclear waste to West Texas gains steam

Feds begin formal review, public hearings scheduled

February 3, 2017

By Corey Paul cpaul(at)oaoa.com
Odessa American

Federal regulators will begin a series of public meetings this month after formally accepting Waste Control Specialists‘ application last week to begin storing spent nuclear fuel at a dump in Andrews County.

The approval was expected — WCS notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission nearly two years ago of the company’s plans before filing the application in April. But the detailed review the NRC will now begin comes at a time when the company is poised to gain an ally in former Gov. Rick Perry, who awaits confirmation as energy secretary.

WCS is seeking to store up to 5,000 metric tons of spent of spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors throughout the U.S. That would potentially increase to 40,000 metric tons over the 40 year temporary storage permit.

The company’s goal is to break ground in 2020.

The NRC set a target of late 2019 for making a licensing decision. That review will follow two tracks, one focused on safety and the other on environmental issues, according to a statement from the NRC.

The first public meeting in Andrews, where the local government supports the plan, will be Feb. 15.

"It’s all coming together," spokesman Chuck McDonald said, saying the company was encouraged by the NRC’s handling of the license application and a DOE request in the fall for recommendations from private companies wanting to store nuclear waste. The DOE said such private facilities "represent a potentially promising alternative to federal facilities for consolidated interim storage."

"It’s a long process, but those two critical steps are in process now," McDonald said.

The NRC is a licensing authority technically independent of the Department of Energy, which President Drumpf tapped Perry to lead. But the DOE oversees management of nuclear waste storage, and the agency would be the sole customer of WCS if its licensing application is granted. In his new role, Perry could direct utilities to ship the spent nuclear fuel to WCS.

"We are encouraged by the fact that Gov. Perry is familiar with what is taking place in Andrews," McDonald said. "While he was governor, he took steps to address a problem that no one else in the country was able to address. He’s got a record of addressing the issue and we think that’s all positive."

It was during Perry’s tenure that the state passed legislation approving the low-level radioactive waste facility WCS operates. And the late owner of the company, Harold Simmons, was one of Perry’s top donors.

The project is driven by a lack of a permanent disposal site after Congress in 2010 nixed funding for the proposed site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Today, spent fuel is kept at nuclear reactors, while the federal government continues to take in money from utilities into a multi-billion dollar fund for a permanent disposal site.

Several environmental groups oppose the plan to store the high-level waste in Andrews, instead arguing it should remain stored at nuclear reactors.

"Rather than store this radioactive waste on an exposed parking lot in West Texas, it should remain at the power plant where it was generated or nearby until a scientifically viable isolation system for permanent disposal can be designed and built," said Karen Hadden, the director of the the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition.

Hadden argued storing high level waste in Andrews County would threaten the underlying aquifer.

But even before WCS notified the NRC of the company’s intent to apply to store high-level nuclear waste, Andrews County commissioners passed a resolution in support of the plan.

In 2009, Andrews County voters approved by a razor-thin margin a $75 million bond to help WCS build the low-level radioactive waste disposal site. But the proposal to store the high-level waste would not require such a vote with WCS not seeking financial help from the county.

To date, the county has received more than $ 8 million in direct payments from disposal fees for the low-level waste that WCS buried at the site in the rural county since opening in 2012, according to figures provided by the company.

But WCS still operates at a loss.

"We are not receiving the amount of shipments that we have anticipated," McDonald said. "It’s showing steady improvement, but it’s not profitable yet."

Winning approval to build an interim disposal site for high-level nuclear waste could mean a windfall of billions of dollars. Andrews County and the State of Texas would share in that windfall.

A WCS competitor has also filed a letter of intent to open an interim storage facility in Lea County, N.M.

Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen’s Texas office argued that transporting high-level nuclear was by rail is dangerous.

The waste would be shipped by train because of its heavy weight. The spent fuel would already be sealed in canisters before it is shipped, limiting handling to moving canisters from transportation to storage casks, according to the NRC.

"Radioactive waste has been safely transported in the United States for 50 years now, quite often by rail," McDonald said. "And there has never been a single accident that resulted in the release of any radioactive materials.”

Before making a licensing decision, the NRC will produce a report evaluating safety and an environmental impact study. And interested parties can challenge the commission’s findings.

"If the application meets our regulations, we’re legally bound to issue a license," Mark Lombard, the NRC’s director of the division of spent fuel management wrote in an April blog post. "We don’t consider whether there’s a need for the facility or whether we think it’s a good idea."

Contact Corey Paul on Twitter @OAcrude on Facebook at OA Corey Paul or call 432-333-7768.

Fair Use Notice
This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. SEED Coalition is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

DOE Seeks More Information on Private Interim Nuclear Waste Storage Facilities

10/31/2016

Sonal Patel
POWER Magazine

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a request for information to assess the future role of private consolidated interim storage facilities in the agency’s plans for an integrated nuclear waste management system.

The DOE noted in an October 27 notice published in the Federal Register that since it unveiled a strategy for the management and disposal of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel in January 2013, it has become aware of a number of private initiatives that have been established and could provide the DOE or utilities with interim storage facilities.

"[Private initiatives], although were not envisioned in the Administration’s Strategy, represent a potentially promising alternative to federal facilities for consolidated interim storage," the agency said.

The request for information seeks input on questions such as how private initiatives, as part of an overall integrated nuclear waste management system, would provide a "workable solution" for interim storage of spent nuclear waste and high-level waste.

It also questions what benefits or drawbacks such initiatives offer, compared to a federally financed capital project for a government-owned contractor-operated interim storage facility, which business models those initiatives would pursue, and how they would manage liabilities during the storage period.

The DOE’s request comes days after Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told attendees at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event that inaction on spent fuel management posed a "significant headwind for many decisions in the nuclear space."

The DOE’s planned integrated waste management system will include transportation, storage, and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. It may include (among other elements) pilot interim storage facilities, initially focused on accepting spent nuclear fuel from shutdown reactor sites. It may also include full-scale, consolidated interim storage facilities that provide greater capacity and flexibility within the waste management system.

The DOE’s January 2013–released strategy document proposes a pilot facility for consolidated storage by 2021. That facility is to be followed by a larger storage facility by 2025, and then by a geologic repository for final disposition of used nuclear fuel by 2048.

At least two private sector players have proposed interim storage solutions to date. In April 2016, Waste Control Specialists LLC, with support from AREVA, submitted a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a consolidated interim storage facility in Andrews County, Texas.

Holtec International is also gearing up to submit safety documentation to the federal nuclear agency for a proposed consolidated interim storage facility in Southeast New Mexico.

Opposition to the Andrews County nuclear waste storage site, at least, is already mounting. On October 27, antinuclear groups Beyond Nuclear and Nuclear Information and Resource Service, citizen group Public Citizen, and environmental group SEED Coalition, called on the NRC to terminate its review of the license application.

"The groups are concerned that the ‘interim’ storage facility may become the de facto permanent home for the highly toxic waste," the groups said in a joint statement. "Given the long battle over Yucca Mountain, the groups have zero confidence that Congress or federal regulators would have the stomach for fighting to move the nuclear waste a second time from WCS or any other ‘interim’ site. And, with utilities totally off the hook and taxpayers footing the entire bill, those that generated the waste would have no incentive to ensure its safe disposal in a permanent geologic repository."

—Sonal Patel, associate editor (@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel)

Fair Use Notice
This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. SEED Coalition is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Statements on Radioactive Waste risks and NRC docketing the WCS application

January 26, 2017

The NRC announced today that they’ve docketed the application from Waste Control Specialists for a consolidated radioactive waste storage in Andrews, TX. The NRC will accept public comments on the scope of its Environmental Impact Statement for the application through March 13th.

SEED Coalition and Public Citizen will hold organizing meetings to help citizens prepare for the upcoming Feb. 13th and Feb. 15th NRC hearings to be held in Hobbs, New Mexico and Andrews, TX. Details are being finalized. An additional NRC hearing will be held the following week in Rockville, MD.

Karen Hadden, Director, Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition 512-797-8481, karendhadden@gmail.com:

"WCS" plan to import the most dangerous of all radioactive waste and dump it on poor communities on the Texas/New Mexico border represents environmental injustice and poses risks of accidents and terrorism and potential contamination along the transport routes throughout the country. The WCS location is close to the Ogallala Aquifer, the nation’s largest aquifer, that lies beneath eight states. A single train car load with dry casks of radioactive waste would contain as much plutonium as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The waste should remain secured in place until a scientfically viable isolation system for permanent disposal can be designed and built.

The Department of Energy (DOE) failed to come to Texas in 2016, but held nine meetings elsewhere around the country but failed to come to Texas or New Mexico – ground zero of where they want to dump high-level radioactive waste. Hundreds of people would likely turn out to oppose this dangerous plan if hearings were held in a major Texas city, but now NRC plans to only host meetings in small communities that stand to benefit economically, as well as have huge health and safety risks. The two agencies are trying to manufacture consent, but we do not consent to being dumped on."

Tom "Smitty" Smith, Public Citizen, 512-797-8468, smitty@citizen.org:

"This plan is all risk, not only for the states of Texas and New Mexico, but for the whole country and it should be halted immediately," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office. "Why is our region being targeted to become the nation’s dumping ground for high-risk high-level radioactive waste? Putting this waste on our highways and railways invites disaster. Radioactive waste moving through highly populated cities across the country could be targeted for sabotage by terrorists." A state report, the Assessment of Texas’ High-Level Radioactive Waste Storage Options, says that "spent nuclear fuel is more vulnerable to sabotage or accidents during transport than in storage because there are fewer security guards and engineered barriers, and that the consequences could be higher since the waste could travel through large cities."

NRC to Review WCS Application, Announces Hearing Opportunity And Meetings on Scope of Environmental Review?

Nuclear Regulatory Commission – Press Release
No: 17-004 January 26, 2017
Contact: Maureen Conley, 301-415-8200

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has docketed and accepted for formal review an application from Waste Control Specialists to build and operate a spent nuclear fuel consolidated interim storage facility in Andrews, Texas. The NRC’s decision follows an acceptance review to determine whether the application contains sufficient information for the agency to begin its formal review.

WCS is seeking to store 5,000 metric tons uranium of spent fuel received from commercial nuclear power reactors across the United States.

The agency’s review will proceed on two parallel tracks – one on safety issues, the other on environmental issues. Both the safety and environmental reviews must be completed before the NRC makes a final licensing decision on the application.

The NRC’s Jan. 26 letter to WCS sets a schedule for its safety and environmental reviews, with a target of making a licensing decision by the third quarter of fiscal year 2019, assuming WCS provides high-quality responses, on schedule, to any NRC requests for additional information. The public will have 60 days from publication of a notice of docketing in the Federal Register, which will appear shortly, to submit requests for a hearing and petition to intervene in the licensing proceeding for the proposed facility. Details on how to submit those requests and petitions will be in the Federal Register notice.

The NRC will accept public comments on the scope of its Environmental Impact Statement through March 13. Details on how to submit those comments will be published shortly in the Federal Register and can be found below.

The NRC will hold two public meetings near the site of the proposed facility to take public comments on the scope of the environmental review. The meetings will be held

  • 7-10 p.m. Mountain Time, Feb. 13, at the Lea County Event Center, 5101 N. Lovington Highway, in Hobbs, N.M.
  • 7-10 p.m. Central Time, Feb. 15, at the James Roberts Center, 855 TX-176, in Andrews, Texas.

Anyone interested in attending or speaking is encouraged to pre-register by calling 301-415-6957 no later than three days prior to the meeting. The public may also register in person at each meeting. The time allowed for each speaker may be limited, depending on the number of registered speakers.

The NRC is also planning to hold additional scoping meetings at agency headquarters in Rockville, Md., during the week following the local meetings. Details are being finalized. Anyone interested in attending should check the NRC public meeting schedule for the dates and times.

Written comments on the EIS scope should refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0231. Comments will be made publicly available and should not include identifying or personal information you do not wish to be disclosed. Comments can be filed via the federal rulemaking website; or by mail to Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: OWFN-12 H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

Feds sue to block acquisition of Dallas radioactive waste company

The U.S. Justice Department is suing to block the acquisition of Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists, which wants to expand the nuclear waste dump it operates in West Texas.

NOV. 18, 2016

By Kiah Collier
Texas Tribune

WCS storage site
An overhead view in 2012 of Waste Control Specialists’ low-level radioactive waste storage facilities near Andrews, Texas. Photo: David Bowser

The U.S. Justice Department is suing to block a Salt Lake City-based company’s acquisition of Waste Control Specialists, the Dallas-based company that wants to expand the nuclear waste dump it operates in West Texas.

If the $367 million merger with proposed buyer EnergySolutions goes through, it would "combine the two most significant competitors for the disposal of low level radioactive waste (LLRW) available to commercial customers in 36 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico," the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the civil antitrust lawsuit.

That merger would "deny commercial generators of LLRW – from universities and hospitals working on life-saving treatments to nuclear facilities producing 20 percent of the electricity in the United States – the benefits of vigorous competition that has led to significantly lower prices, better service and innovation in recent years."

"Since opening its LLRW disposal facility in 2012, Waste Control Specialists has provided EnergySolutions the only real competition it has ever faced," Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse in the statement, which noted that "billions of dollars are set to be awarded in the coming years."

EnergySolutions said it would "vigorously defend" the pending acquisition, noting in a statement that "there are numerous disposal sites for LLRW waste operated by the competitors of the two companies."

A spokesman for Waste Control Specialists did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

In April, the company submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking to expand the radioactive waste dump it operates in Andrews County. It was seeking to store tens of thousands of metric tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel that is currently scattered across the country. (Federal policymakers have been trying to figure out what to do with the high-level radioactive waste for decades.)

The commission has requested additional information from the company in June that it has yet to provide. But the commission is still moving forward with its review and is seeking public comment on how the project could impact the environment, including endangered species, significant cultural resources and sensitive areas, along with increases in traffic and noise and dust from construction.

"We cannot proceed with the technical safety review until WCS adequately addresses our request for supplemental information, but we do have the information we need to begin the environmental scoping process now," said Mark Lombard, who heads the commission’s division of spent fuel management, in a statement this week. "WCS will bear the cost of staff time devoted to the environmental review, even if we are unable to docket the application in its current form."

Written comments can be submitted at www.regulations.gov; via email to WCS_CISF_EIS@nrc.gov; or by mail to Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: OWFN- 12 H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

Read more of the Tribune’s related coverage:

  • Anti-nuclear groups seize on missing information in license application from Waste Control Specialists, which says it’s normal to add information to a complex, voluminous application.
  • The company operating a low-level nuclear waste dump in West Texas applied for a license to begin accepting highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel.
Fair Use Notice
This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. SEED Coalition is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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