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Environment, Energy and Transportation Program

Radioactive Waste News

A Quarterly Summary of Generation, Transportation, Storage and Disposal Issues

Vol. 21, No. 1
February 2004

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In This Issue

In Depth: Utah Opposes Storage of "Hotter" Nuclear Waste
DOE Complex
Department of Energy Facility Updates
Yucca Mountain Update
Other News
Spent Fuel Cask Updates
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSI)
Changes to NCSL Radioactive Waste Newsletter

In Depth: Utah Opposes Storage of "Hotter" Nuclear Waste

Mike Leavitt--former Utah governor and current administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)--staunchly opposed efforts to bring more radioactive waste into Utah during his tenure as the state's chief executive. Newly inaugurated Utah Governor Olene Walker took up that fight in November. This position put both at odds with Utah Representative Rob Bishop. The state's freshman congressman inserted a provision in the stalled energy bill that would reclassify radioactive "silo waste" from a federal cleanup site in Ohio as "commercial" and, therefore, as eligible for disposal at Envirocare's Utah facility. The Department of Energy is responsible for the cleanup and disposal by 2006 of 15,000 cubic yards of high- and low-level uranium waste that currently is stored in silos at the Fernald site.

Envirocare began operations in Utah in 1999 and, since that time, has buried 97 trainloads of less dangerous radioactive waste from the Fernald site in Ohio. The company has requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) increase the concentration of waste allowed at its mill tailings landfill in order to allow for further dumping. Material as concentrated and long-lived as the waste from Fernald and Niagara Falls, New York, is banned in Utah if it comes from a commercial source such as a nuclear power plant. Due to a quirk in federal law, should Congress reclassify the waste and Envirocare receive a change in its federal license, the waste would be eligible to go to Utah.

In response, the state is attempting to gain regulatory control of waste such as the mill tailings. Until such authority is granted, the state will be permitted to do little except limit the transportation of the material into Tooele County, where Envirocare is located. The Utah Division of Radiation Control has been working for the past two years to gain control over the federally licensed portion of Envirocare; it expects to receive that authority by the spring of 2004. A state legislative task force currently is reviewing the state's hazardous waste disposal policy to address whether hotter waste labeled Class B and Class C should be allowed. In an unexpected turn of events, Envirocare agreed not to pursue the Fernald cleanup contract until Utah gains oversight authority.

It is believed that some of the current confusion stems from the fact that, during the development of the nation's radioactive waste policy, Congress did not anticipate the intensity of the radiation of the uranium mill tailings that now are being stored at Fernald and Niagara Falls. The unprocessed ore--12 to 14 times radioactive than ore mined on the Colorado Plateau--originated in what is now the Congo. After being blended with concrete and placed in carbon steel containers, the waste is expected to have a concentration of less than or equal to 100,000 picocuries radium per gram--a measure of the concentration of radiation--the level currently allowed under Utah's Class C category for low-level waste.

In addition to the potential NRC-based reclassification, the EPA also is considering a rule change that would allow the nuclear industry to store low-level radioactive material in ordinary landfills and hazardous waste sites. The EPA's efforts are aimed at developing a new "safe" category of nuclear waste that could be disposed of at unlicensed dumps or incinerators, an effort that coincides with the NRC's deliberation over several alternatives for nuclear waste deregulation. The NRC has provided the EPA with technical support and comments over the past year and a half while the two agencies have coordinated their regulatory review activities.

DOE Complex

New Office of Legacy Management

With the signing of the energy and water bill by President Bush, the new Office of Legacy Management will begin to implement its mission, which has been mapped out in meetings and planning documents. Director Michael Owen identified the primary goals of the office at the DOE Intergovernmental Groups Meeting in November. They are to: 1) protect human health and the environment through effective and efficient long-term surveillance and maintenance; 2) preserve and protect legacy records and information; 3) support an effective and efficient work force; 4) manage legacy land and assets; and 5) mitigate effects in the community resulting from the cleanup of legacy waste and changing departmental missions.

Growing Concerns Surround the Implementation of RBES

The Department of Energy (DOE), acting in response to various concerns expressed by affected communities, extended the deadlines for the draft and final Risk-Based End Statements (RBES) to February 1, 2004, and March 30, 2004, respectively. A major concern is the sparse community involvement during the development of the new risk-based cleanup documents. The DOE has stressed that the RBES documents at Fernald and other sites that are being criticized are drafts that will be reviewed and, if necessary, adjusted.

Management Changes at DOE Laboratories

The University of California (UC) regents approved the creation of a board of directors that will oversee the two nuclear weapons design laboratories--Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore. The move was prompted by serious management problems that set off a series of investigations, congressional hearings, and federal and UC inquiries into the labs' financial practices. Lawrence Livermore was individually taken to task by the DOE's Inspector General concerning security practices related to lost keys and electronic key cards.

Federal Assistance May Help with Storage Security at Reactors

At a December meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Board on Radioactive Waste Management, a member of Representative Harold Rogers' (R-Ky) staff--chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security--stated that "her boss" would be willing to pick up the costs associated with ensuring the security of spent nuclear fuel at reactor sites should a congressionally mandated study indicate that such action is necessary. Congress allocated $1 million in the FY 2004 energy and water funding bill for a one-year study for NAS to assess the safety and security of pool storage and the benefits of various cask designs. According to Charles McCombie, vice chairman of the NAS board, the NAS could become the "scientific arbitrator" of the question of spent fuel security.

Maintaining Ohio GDP in Cold Standby Needs to be Rethought

The costs of the "cold standby" program at the Portsmouth, Ohio, gaseous diffusion plant have led the DOE's inspector general to call for a reevaluation. Under the current schedule, the program will end in September 2006. However, because DOE's budget documents are linked with the successful deployment of gas centrifuge technology, the program could be extended an additional three years to 2009. The longer the cold standby program continues, the more costly it will be to restart the plant if and when that time comes.

Department of Energy Facility Updates

Hanford

• In spite of a recent letter from the Department of Energy (DOE) confirming the reactor's deactivation, advocates for the Hanford Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) remain hopeful. The letter outlined analysis performed by DOE concerning alternative uses of the FFTF, their environmental effects, and policy-based considerations of the facility's long-term mission. Involved citizen's groups and FFTF advocates believe that the reactor has several potential missions, including providing medical isotopes for fighting cancer and acting as a test platform for the next generation of nuclear reactors. Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have refused requests to restart the reactor.
• The DOE, the Washington Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a public comment period on draft changes to the Tri-Party Agreement focused on the cleanup schedule for several types of waste at the site. These changes include: beginning to 1) retrieve suspect transuranic (TRU) waste currently stored in the low-level burial grounds; 2) retrieve remote handled and large container mixed low-level waste no later than June 30, 2008; 3) retrieve remote handled stored waste in the low-level burial grounds by January 1, 2011; and 4) completing the retrieval of remote handled low-level and TRU waste by December 31, 2018. The public comment period will run from December 1, 2003, through February 13, 2004. Additional information can be found at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/nwp/pdf/agreement.pdf.
• Ron Gallagher has been named as Fluor Hanford's new president and chief executive officer to oversee operations at the site. Fluor Hanford is responsible for cleanup at the site; ground water protection; preparation of nearly 18 tons of plutonium materials for disposal; and deactivating, dismantling and demolishing nuclear facilities used for, among other things, plutonium processing. The company's contract runs through September 30, 2006. Major projects that remain to be completed include dealing with ground water contamination and the outstanding radioactive and chemical wastes stored in containers in buildings and burial trenches.

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL)

• For the second consecutive year, INEEL is the recipient of the DOE's Star of Excellence--one of the nation's highest awards for safety performance. INEEL is being recognized for an injury/illness rate that is 75 percent below the average in its industry code.
• The completion of contaminated soil excavation at INEEL's Central Facilities Area in October has moved the cleanup work at the facility onto the fast track. The goal was accomplished through the coordinated efforts of the facility, the EPA, and the state of Idaho. The soil excavation marks the end of the physical cleanup work at the facility. Remaining work includes the backfill and revegetation of the excavated areas and monitoring of the cleanup measures taken at the facility. Before issuing a closeout report, the agencies will evaluate the cleanup across the entire Central Facilities Area.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

• Due to a continuing regulatory disagreement between the state of New Mexico and the federal government, the DOE is withholding extra money for cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). As much as $43 million in cleanup money will help with LANL's accelerated cleanup plan, which includes the removal of 9,100 cubic meters of transuranic waste in temporary storage and the cleanup of groundwater and surface water contamination sites by 2015.

Oak Ridge

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory is sending an unnamed number of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rods to INEEL for temporary storage. DOE would not disclose the timing or route of the shipment. The Oak Ridge shipment is scheduled just four months after a shipment of 125 SNF rods sent to INEEL from a federal facility in western New York. The shipment from New York was to be the only one in 2003, but, because it was smaller than expected, there was room for the waste from Oak Ridge.
• The "excess material" from two buildings at the Oak Ridge K-2 site will be removed by Safety and Ecology Corp. and disposed of at the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility in Oak Ridge. The cleanup project does not apply to the uranium processing equipment housed in the K-25 and K-27 buildings. The Knoxville-based safety and environmental remediation company has a mid-2005 deadline for completion of the work. The project as described has three parts: 1) the removal of asbestos; 2) the cleanup and removal of equipment from the buildings; and 3) the demolition of the structures.

Paducah

• The recently signed accelerated cleanup agreement for the Paducah site is the basis of a lawsuit filed by local citizens against DOE and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The terms of the agreement include a site cleanup deadline of 2019 and the payment of penalties by DOE to Kentucky for state hazardous waste violations totaling $1 million. The suit claims that the agreement will not provide for adequate cleanup of the site and further endangers the health and welfare of those living in the vicinity of the site.
• The General Accounting Office released a report entitled Preliminary Observations of DOE's Cleanup of the Paducah Uranium Enrichment Plant. Current DOE projections indicate that the cleanup will not be complete until 2019 at a cost of $2 billion--nine years later and $700 million more than earlier estimates. The $2 billion cost estimate does not include the cost of other activities that are required to close the site once the plant ceases operations. The final decontamination and decommissioning of the plant and long-term environmental monitoring will bring the total estimated cost to well over $13 billion through 2070. The general observation is that, although DOE has made some progress in the cleanup, the majority of the work remains to be done. The full report is available at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-278T.

Savannah River

• A milestone in the accelerated cleanup of Savannah River waste was attained when the last unit of spent nuclear fuel from the site's Receiving Basin for Offsite Fuels (RBOF) was removed. DOE credits the achievement to its focus on risk reduction as part of the Environmental Management Office's accelerated cleanup program.
• DOE grant funds that subsidize the monitoring of river water for radiochemical contamination in areas downstream from the Savannah River Site (SRS) will not be renewed in 2004. In addition to the river monitoring, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division monitors the air at seven stations between Augusta and Savannah and oversees testing for radiation in milk, crops, soil and river sediment.
• Since 2001, the DOE has provided $1.9 million to the state for the detection of potential emissions from the SRS. That funding ceased on January 17, 2004. The state had expected to receive $700,000 from the DOE in 2004 for continuation of the monitoring program. It is the position of the department that it agreed to support the program through a grant only for the initial start-up period of three years, after which time the state was to assume responsibility for funding the monitoring.

Weldon Springs

• A November 16, 2003, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article criticized the DOE's actions at Weldon Springs and called for better monitoring, increased state oversight in the decision-making process, and the completion of a long-term stewardship plan for the site. In response, the DOE issued Transformation of the Weldon Springs Site, a document outlining the agency's position on the state of affairs at the site. In summary, the document maintains the Weldon Springs site as a success story--transformed from a heavily contaminated area to a fully accessible and usable site--promoting stakeholder involvement and the availability of public information.

Yucca Mountain Update

Nevada Prepares for Legal Battle against Yucca Mountain

The state of Nevada prepared arguments presented before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on January 14, 2004. (The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 directed all lawsuits over the project to be heard in the D.C. court.) The hearing covered six lawsuits--consolidated for purposes of this trial--filed by the state against the federal government between 2000 and 2002. The basic message of Nevada's legal team is that the government is attempting to move forward with plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, even though the site does not meet the original legal requirements for a high-level waste repository. The state is accusing the DOE of improperly evaluating the environmental effects of the project and contend's that the EPA and the NRC did not comply with the law when developing licensing rules and standards for the project.

According to state officials, Nevada has spent more than two decades and $100 million to prepare for the legal battle. Approximately $80 million of the preparation costs were allocated to the state by the DOE for oversight. The remaining $20 million came from the state Legislature and private donations.

DOE Issues Rail Corridor Preference for Transportation to Yucca Mountain

On December 23, 2003, the DOE identified a rail corridor as its preferred route to transport spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste to the planned repository at Yucca Mountain as well as a secondary preference. The preferred route is the 319-mile route from Caliente, Nevada; DOE's second choice is the 323-mile route from Carlin, Nevada. A December 29, 2003, Federal Register notice announced that the department will issue a record of decision (ROD) on a corridor preference (if the rail mode is adopted) no sooner than 30 days after the preference announcement. The Bureau of Land Management issued a separate notice on the same day, stating that it had received a request from the DOE for a 20-year withdrawal of 308,600 acres of public land along the Caliente route to evaluate the land for the construction, operation and maintenance of a branch rail line.

NWTRB Raises Additional Questions about Cask Corrosion

In successive letters sent in October and November 2003, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) outlined its concerns about the possible corrosion of metal containers inside the proposed repository to DOE's director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), Margaret Chu. The October letter delineated the NWTRB's corrosion concerns, while the November letter included additional analyses to support the board's conclusions that waste casks "could melt inside the Yucca Mountain repository." The DOE disagreed with the conclusions made by the NWTRB and stated that all the information has yet to be reviewed. However, OCRWM officials have announced that they will not be ready to discuss the report until March 2004.

According to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, all factors that could affect repository temperatures might not have been taken into account, in effect making inaccurate the DOE's temperature and relative humidity calculations for the repository. The report in which this claim was made was in support of an earlier claim that repository conditions would trigger localized corrosion of waste packages during the first 1,000 years of operations. The NWTRB believes that all the conditions necessary for deliquescence--the absorption of atmospheric water vapor by a solid salt to the point where the salt dissolves into a brine--would be present during the thermal pulse. Expected to last about 1,000 years, the thermal pulse will cause temperatures in the repository to rise and fall as the radioactive waste ages.

Michael Corradini, chairman of the NWTRB, expressed the board's first minority opinion in the report. It is the chairman's belief that only packages in certain areas of the tunnels--the ends for example--would be susceptible to corrosion as the waste packages cool. Because all deliquescence experiments conducted to this point have not involved a heated surface, the results have given a false indication as to when deliquescence might actually occur. Full text of the report can be found on the board's Web site at http://www.nwtrb.gov.

Chair and Member of the NWTRB Resign

In a December 30, 2003, letter to President Bush, the chairman of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, Michael Corradini, resigned. In his letter, Mr. Corradini stated that he believed his departure from the board would leave a gap in nuclear engineering expertise and that scrutiny over his outside activities had become an "insurmountable distraction." The board's executive director said that Vice Chairman David Duquette would likely function as the chair until a replacement for Corradini is appointed by the White House. And in a January 15, 2004, letter to the president, board member Paul P. Craig tendered his resignation, citing a desire to return to the professional life he maintained prior to becoming a member of the board.

Scientists in Search of Hidden Volcanoes around Yucca Mountain

Using an aircraft equipped with magnetic sensing instruments, scientists will begin to locate areas that will be drilled in search of basalt materials that could indicate evidence of volcanic activity. The field studies will focus on Crater Flat west of the mountain. The DOE approved the studies, expected to begin in February, although previous scientific work found that extinct volcanoes and cinder cones in the mountain's vicinity do not pose a credible threat to plans for burying spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at the site.

"Secret" NRC/DOE Meetings Rile Nevada

A Nevada attorney requested the NRC general counsel investigate "secret" meetings between the DOE and the NRC on quality assurance (QA) at the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. The first of three scheduled so-called "secret" meetings was held in November, while a second was held in December. A spokeswoman for the NRC noted that the agency had refused Nevada's request to participate in the meeting, scheduled as a follow-up to a May letter from the director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Margaret Chu, in which commitments were made to QA improvements. Because the DOE is not yet a licensee of the NRC, the QA meetings are prelicensing ex-changes and need not include state officials.

State Again Denies DOE Water Permit

The Nevada State Engineer's Office reiterated its earlier decision to reject DOE's water permit application for Yucca Mountain. The ultimate decision of whether a permit will be issued will come from the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. However, a decision will not be issued until a federal appeals court has issued its decision on the state's lawsuits challenging the repository. The appeals court consolidated all the state's lawsuits into a single case that was argued in January. The state believes its denial of DOE's water permit application is justified by Governor Kenny Guinn's veto of the site recommendation in 2001 that the repository is not in the best interest of Nevada residents. Nothing precludes the district court from ordering the state to issue a water permit.

Maintenance Plan to Be Developed for Yucca Mountain Tunnel Supports

An agreement for the DOE to develop a maintenance plan for the ground supports it will use in the Yucca Mountain repository was the result of interactions between the agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The plan will be included in the license application sent to NRC in December 2004. At this time, the DOE has proposed the use of rock bolts and perforated metal liners to help support the repository tunnels. In exchanges with the NRC, the DOE has acknowledged " ... the need to study the potential impacts of localized liquid phase water on the various ground support materials that will be assessed and a strategy for monitoring, inspection and maintenance will be developed as needed."

Parties Wrangle over the Potential for Criticality in the Yucca Mountain Repository

Because a DOE study suggests that spent fuel left unattended in aboveground storage casks for 10,000 years has the potential to reach criticality, the state of Nevada is suggesting the same would occur for fuel in corroded waste packages placed underground for the same period. Officials elsewhere disagreed, citing factors--such as the waste packages' environment and the packages' neutron absorber plates--that would make a criticality event unlikely when the waste is inside the mountain. Nevada filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on November 25, 2003 arguing that the criticality risk could turn waste packages into dirty bombs. (This is one of the cases that has been consolidated and was argued on January 14, 2004.)

Allen Benson, a spokesman for the DOE, responded by stating that an aboveground storage system does not have the same degree of redundancy as a repository. In addition, waste packages will be smaller than storage casks, therefore containing fewer fuel assemblies. A member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, which has been closely following the issue of criticality, said that he personally believed "it would be a real stretch" to say what occurred on the surface would occur below the surface.

Other News

Officials Agree on Plans for the Cleanup of Washington's Unfinished Power Plants

Washington Governor Gary Locke and top energy officials signed an agreement officially terminating two unfinished nuclear power plant sites at Hanford and establishing a framework for partially restoring the sites by 2026. A consortium of public utilities began construction on five nuclear power plants in the 1970s, but only one--the Columbia Generating Station at Hanford--was completed. Two of the remaining four were turned over to a local redevelopment authority. The final two are the subject of the recently signed agreement.

The Bonneville Power Administration and Energy Northwest will shoulder the responsibility for immediately securing the health and safety of both plants and for Level 3D restoration at both sites. Level 3D provides for the main structures on the two sites to be sealed and secured, while the rest of the area will be restored to its original condition. Some critics of the agreement wanted the buildings dismantled and removed and the landscape restored, but that could have cost as much as $115 million. Governor Locke stated that the compromise is environmentally sound. Work to clear the sites of the most imminent health and safety hazards has already begun, however the heavy demolition work will not begin for at least 23 years, with an ultimate deadline of 2029.

New Mexico Considers Playing Host to Uranium Enrichment Plant

During the summer of 2003, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson endorsed Louisiana Energy Service's (LES) plans to construct and operate a $1.2 billion uranium enrichment plant in the southeast corner of the state. The energy company participated in undisclosed conversations with Senator Pete Domenici to insert language in the energy policy bill that would have required the DOE to accept waste from the plant. In response, Richardson stated that he would not support the project unless Congress passes a law specifying that no waste from the plant will remain in New Mexico.

Officials of LES publicly stated that their first choice is to transfer waste from New Mexico to a private facility for "deconversion." However, no facility in the country can handle that. Instead, hundreds of thousands of tons of waste are stockpiled at federal uranium plants across the country. The federal government itself lacks the facilities to modify the waste to make it safe for permanent storage.

In addition to a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, LES will need air quality and water discharge permits from the state of New Mexico. The company has yet to apply for any permits.

Entergy Claims no State Approval Needed for Storage

Entergy Nuclear has run into storage problems at the Vermont Yankee plant in Vernon, Vermont. The company is running out of storage space for spent nuclear fuel (SNF), and the problem will only increase if it is granted permission to increase power production. An increase in production will increase the amount of spent fuel by 20 percent. The company is confident that it does not need the state's approval to store high-level radioactive waste in casks outside the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Under the current terms of its operating license, if Entergy used one of 14 cask designs approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), it can store the SNF on site without state approval. Both Entergy and the NRC are operating under the belief that state approval is not needed; yet the state is not ready to concede that point. Vermont Public Service Commissioner David O'Brien quotes the state's radioactive waste law, which states that, " ... no facility for deposit, storage, reprocessing or disposal of spent nuclear fuel elements or radioactive waste material shall be constructed or established in the state of Vermont unless the General Assembly first finds that it promotes the general good of the state." The distinction to be made is that the law addresses the licensing of a permanent facility, not temporary storage.

Entergy currently is attempting to retrofit the Vermont reactor in order to produce more power. The retrofit would increase power production at the reactor by 20 percent of its current rate; concurrently, the amount of spent nuclear fuel will increase by 20 percent. Even without the retrofit and repeated reracks of the old fuel, the plant is expected to run out of storage space in 2008.

Nuclear Industry Explores New Reactor Projects

It has been almost 25 years since a new nuclear plant has been approved in the United States. However, a $1.1 billion project included in the stalled U.S. energy bill to develop a new generation of reactor might revive nuclear energy and aid in the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Included in the bill are $750 million per year in tax breaks for building eight reactors, roughly translated to 6,000 megawatts of new nuclear capacity. The "very high temperature reactor" (VHTR), to be developed at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, is designed to produce both electricity and hydrogen. It also would be safer to operate and less vulnerable to sabotage.

The VHTR would operate by packaging uranium in small pellets covered in graphite that are then cooled by helium gas. The process would allow heat to radiate away from the core of the reactor, thus eliminating the need for an elaborate cooling system and reducing the possibility of a severe accident. Nine other countries currently are working on new reactor designs. The VHTR would not be ready for demonstration until 2015. Therefore, as a "bridge" between existing reactors and the VHTR, an advanced light water reactor--AP 1000--is now in development by Westinghouse.

Entergy Seeks Federal Compensation for Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel

In November, Entergy sued the federal government for damages for the continued on-site storage of spent reactor fuel. This increases to 30 the number of claims against the government. According to earlier estimates, should all utilities file claims, the federal government's liability could total $50 billion, more than double DOE's budget for FY 2004. Oral arguments for the case--Indian Michigan Power Co. v. Department of Energy, 95-1279 (D.C. Cir. 1996)--are scheduled for March 1, 2004. This case covers the first set of claims filed following DOE's default. Former owners in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York have joined the lawsuit, and other potential claimants exist in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

NRC Looks for Reduction in Heavy Load Drops

The NRC has committed to taking action to reduce the number and potential severity of crane load drop incidents. Actions to be taken include " ... evaluating the capability of rigging components and materials to hold up to rigging mistakes, endorsing the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' rules for qualifying new or upgraded single failure proof cranes, and stressing the importance of following guidelines (NUREG 0612) for safe crane operating practices." The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research plans to evaluate whether the NRC should establish a standardized calculation methodology for heavy load drops. The agency conducted a survey of crane drop incidents from 1968 to 2002. The survey found that, although there was not a high risk for nuclear plant safety, concerns did exist about worker safety.

Deadline for Research Fuel "Take-Back" to Be Extended

In spite of the lack of a commitment by the DOE's Office of Environmental Management, foreign research reactor operators said the Bush administration has agreed to extend the deadline for U.S. take-back of its spent fuel. The take-back program is attached to the Reduced Enrichment in Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) Program, the aim of which is to convert U.S.-supplied nonpower reactors from high-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU). Incentive for the conversion of those reactors stems from the U.S. offer to repatriate not only fresh and spent HEU fuel, but also spent LEU fuel discharged from the reactor by May 2006 and shipped by May 2009. According to department officials, the future home of the program currently is the subject of active discussion between the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) and the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); the Office of Environmental Management has no desire to retain a proprietary role over the program. It is possible that responsibility for the program could be split--NNSA could be in charge until the material arrives in the United States and OCRWM could be responsible for the transportation of the material to its final destination.

Spent Fuel Cask Updates

Transport Amendment Issued to BNFL - On November 14, 2003, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an amendment to the transport license for British Nuclear Fuels Limited's FuelSolutions transportation cask. The amendment, applied for in January 2003 changed the decay heat limits for the W21 canister and added an alternate design for the W74 damaged fuel can lid assembly.

TN Progresses with QA Issues - The cask vendor Transnuclear Inc. (TN) underwent an NRC inspection in October 2003, following violations found during a July 2002 inspection by the agency. The October inspection revealed that the company had adequately addressed violations identified during the July inspection and is making progress in addressing programmatic quality assurance issues. Final judgement on the programmatic issue was withheld by the NRC, pending further demonstration by TN of the implementation of the necessary changes. Many of the improvements are credited to TN's creation of the post of director of corporate quality assurance.

Separate Schedule for Holtec's Burnup Request - The NRC decided to treat Holtec's request for burnup credit to allow for the transport of the MPC-32 canister as a third amendment to the Hi-Star 100 transport certificate of compliance (COC). The burnup credit had been part of the second amendment. Holtec's licensing manager expressed surprise and disappointment at NRC's decision to treat the burnup request as a separate amendment with its own review schedule. As it now stands, the new review schedule calls for an April 2004 target for a possible request for additional information (RAI) and a September 2004 deadline for the issuance of a COC and safety evaluation report (SER).

Holtec Responds to NRC on Thermal Code Concerns - Holtec, hoping to expand heat limits for the Hi-Storm spent fuel storage system, provided the NRC with additional information in November 2003. NRC's primary concern was lack of sufficient data, which meant that Holtec's heat transfer and cask pressure analyses were extrapolating beyond the agency's comfort level. The company searched through technical literature and found the support it needed for its use of the Fluent code in thermal analyses.

Cask Loading Complete at Duane Arnold - Nuclear Management Co. issued a statement that Duane Arnold completed its first campaign to load spent fuel into storage casks. Ten Transnuclear Inc. Nuhoms 61BT storage canisters were filled and placed into newly constructed, on-site concrete storage modules. At a cost of about $24 million, the project allows the plant to store 60 years' worth of spent fuel on site. NMC will conduct a second cask loading campaign at Duane Arnold in six to eight years.

SFPO no Longer Will Perform Acceptance Reviews - The NRC's Spent Fuel Project Office (SFPO) no longer will perform acceptance reviews of applications, possibly allowing the staff's technical reviews to begin sooner. Technical reviewers had determined whether an application contained enough information for a full technical review to begin. Due to the change, technical reviewers will not see an application until the technical review begins. Although this could speed up the process, reviews might be delayed in mid-stream if reviewers find key information is missing. The change is being viewed as consistent with SFPO's practice of requiring the applicant to be responsible for ensuring a quality application is submitted.

Revision Made to ISG 11 - In November 2003, the NRC's Spent Fuel Project Office revised its guidance on fuel cladding to allow for higher temperatures during specific short term storage conditions. Cladding considerations for spent fuel storage and transportation are found within interim staff guidance (ISG) 11. The current temperature changes are within revision 3, which also addresses the backfit issue stemming from an earlier revision.

Part 71 Change Process will go Through Additional Transformation - The NRC is making changes to 10 CFR Part 71 in order to give the licensees and certificate holders of this section limited authority to make design changes without prior NRC review and approval. Earlier, staff had suggested dropping this provision from the final rule, which originally was part of the revisions to Part 71 proposed in April 2002. Following an analysis of the public comments, NRC staff reconsidered the proposal, stating in a paper to the commission that the change " ... would result in new and significant regulatory burdens and costs that were beyond those considered in the proposed rulemaking." Also included in the paper was an indication that, to guide the change process in Part 71, a new regulatory infrastructure would need to be developed.

Some minor changes already are allowed without NRC approval under Part 71 under the condition that such changes do not affect the provisions listed in the certificate of compliance or the ability to of the package to meet the requirements of Part 71. The NRC staff was directed to finish all revisions to the rulemaking documents by December 22, 2003. A schedule for issuing the final rule has yet to be determined.

On a yet-to-be-determined date, the NRC will hold a public workshop with industry representatives that will focus on the implications of granting limited design change authority to certificate of compliance holders under Part 71.

Thermal Issues with the Advanced Nuhoms System - Officials from Transnuclear Inc. (TN) and the NRC met to discuss the vendor's proposed responses to a request for additional information (RAI) on an amendment to the advanced Nuhoms system. The majority of the questions related to TN's thermal analysis. Another issue of concern is convection and how it is treated within the application. TN's response to the RAI was due to the NRC on December 24, 2003. NRC will issue a preliminary certificate of compliance (COC) and safety evaluation report (SER) for amendment 8 in August 2004.

U.S. Tool & Die Purchased by Holtec - As of January 1, 2004, U.S. Tool & Die (USTD)--the Pittsburgh-based nuclear fabricator--became a wholly owned subsidiary of Holtec International. Holtec, which used USTD almost exclusively for more than a decade to fabricate components for spent fuel storage products, credits the fabricator as being one of the key contributors to its success. It is thought that the purchase will enhance the intellectual property of Holtec, supplementing their research and development lab and engineering and design operations. USTD will continue their operations as a stand-alone commercial entity.

Hanford Dry Storage Courtesy of TN - Fluor Hanford has contracted with Transnuclear Inc. (TN) to design and supply a dry storage system for cesium and strontium capsules at DOE's Hanford site. The system will be based on the Nuhoms horizontal spent fuel storage technology--the most widely used spent fuel dry storage technology in the United States. Ultimately, the system will house 1,936 capsules that currently are stored at the Hanford waste encapsulation and storage facility.

NRC and Vendors Discuss Storage Only Casks - BNFL Fuel Solutions and Transnuclear Inc. have upcoming meetings with DOE to discuss shipping storage-only casks. Storage-only systems once were the only option for utilities that required dry storage, but that no longer is the case; dual-purpose designs that are capable of transporting and storing fuel now are readily available. The greatest challenge vendors face with this task is identifying a licensing approach that is narrowly focused on the limited number of these casks in use.

Sequoyah Cask Loading to Begin in April - The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) notified the NRC that it will begin to load spent nuclear fuel into dry storage casks in April 2004. Holtec International was awarded a contract in 2000 to supply the TVA with eight spent fuel storage overpacks, eight fuel storage canisters, and ancillary equipment; it also will load the casks.

Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSI)

No Impact from Surry ISFSI Renewal - Following the NRC staff's preliminary determination that renewing Dominion Virginia Power's site-specific license for the Surry ISFSI would not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment, the state of Virginia had no comments. Dominion is not only seeking a 20-year license renewal, but it also submitted a separate exemption request that would extend the renewal for another 20 years; the current license expires in 2006. The Surry renewal is the NRC's first for a dry cask ISFSI.

New Data Supports ISFSI Renewal - The results of a NRC research program provide a solid technical basis that supports the renewal of ISFSI and cask licenses. The low-burnup spent fuel placed in dry storage was found to retain its structural integrity after 15 years, and the studies suggest that it will continue to do so for an additional 100 years, providing for safe transfer to a final repository. As utilities begin the license renewal process, the studies will help NRC to make renewal determinations.

ISFSI Security Orders Issued by NRC - New ISFSIs in development at Haddam Neck and River Bend by Dominion Connecticut and Entergy, respectively, were issued new security orders by the NRC. The orders, which contain safeguarded information, will not be publicly released. Should the threat environment remain the same, similar orders will be issued periodically to sites that have near-term plans to develop ISFSIs.

NRC Requesting New Analysis of Diablo Canyon Fuel - In response to revision 3 of ISG 11, the NRC has requested that Pacific Gas & Electric prepare a new analysis of Diablo Canyon fuel. The path forward now is unclear because the agency is in the final stages of preparing a safety evaluation report (SER) and license for the proposed ISFSI for Diablo Canyon. A spokesman for the facility said the company does not expect a delay in the license, which is expected some time in January 2004.

PG&E Objects to County Environmental Report - The San Luis Obispo County planning department was charged with preparing a report that identifies effects on the environment from a proposed ISFSI at Diablo Canyon. However, PG&E, in comments to the department, feels the report went "well beyond" its stated purpose and violated California law governing the state permitting process. PG&E is required to obtain a coastal development permit from the planning department before it can begin construction on the Diablo Canyon ISFSI. Although it recognizes that NRC has sole jurisdiction over reactor regulation and the handling and storage of spent fuel, the county proposed several mitigation measures to guard against terrorist activities; the measures include the use of all-metal casks. The planning commission is expected to make a decision on the permit by February 26, 2004. If the decision is appealed, it will go to the county board of supervisors and, ultimately, to the state coastal commission.

PG&E to Deliver Humboldt Bay Application - Officials from Pacific Gas & Electric will meet with officials from NRC to deliver their application for a site-specific ISFSI at Humboldt Bay. For storage purposes, the utility plans to use a modified version of Holtec International's Hi-Star 100 transportable stainless steel storage cask. Much of the fuel at Humboldt Bay has been in pool storage for at least 20 years, making the decay heat low and allowing PG&E to load 80 assemblies per cask rather than the normal 68. The ISFSI ultimately will host six casks, including one for Greater-than-Class-C-waste. The facility design was influenced by its location on the bay and the fact that it can accommodate a public trail that crosses the site inside the controlled area boundary.

Utah Again Files Charges in PFS Case - Legal proceedings around the Private Fuel Storage (PFS) facility in Utah have been ongoing for six and one-half years. A recent NRC deadline required the submission of final appeals on based on contentions that had not been previously filed, dismissed or under summary judgement. The state of Utah was one of two parties that filed requests for NRC review on issues that include on-site security, transportation security, and the lack of plans for a facility where casks could be opened and the condition of the fuel inspected. Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia--a group that includes members of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians--submitted a separate filing. Among the list of contentions was PFS's emergency plans, environmental justice claims and, similar to the state, the lack of a facility for materials review.

Changes to NCSL Radioactive Waste Newsletter

Beginning with the April 2004 edition, the newsletter will be divided -- one volume will focus on radioactive waste and the other on environmental management issues.

In order to provide you with only information of interest, please take the time to fill out and fax back the form below to Alise Garcia at 303-364-7800. Thank you!

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