Yucca Mountain Spent Nuclear Fuel Waste Repository License Proposal Date Pushed Back

February 7, 2005 Salt Lake Tribune By Patty Henetz

The federal Energy Department has once again pushed back its expected date to file a license proposal for the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel waste repository, a project increasingly in doubt as scientific and political problems multiply.

Officials now say they hope to complete the license application by the end of the calendar year and to push the opening of the repository past 2015.

That uncertainty, along with growing interest in storing spent fuel on or near nuclear reactor sites, in turn weigh on Private Fuel Storage's proposal for interim spent nuclear fuel storage on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah. Utilities increasingly are turning to building dry cask storage facilities of their own on or near reactor sites because they no longer are confident Yucca will be built.

The ambitious Private Fuel Storage (PFS) plan to transport and store up to 44,000 tons of highly radioactive waste on a 100-acre parcel 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City would be attractive only if it were cheaper than storing spent fuel near the reactors, said Bob Loux, executive director of the anti-Yucca Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency.

"If you have the option of just leaving it at reactor sites, the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] has said as a rule that's as safe as a repository for the next 150 years," Loux said. It would be cheaper for utilities to store waste on site than send it to PFS because they wouldn't have to pay for transportation, he said.

Loux said the Energy Department's announcement a week ago that it would renew its proposal for above-ground spent fuel storage at the Yucca Mountain site - albeit scaled back - signaled to utilities that Yucca is in deep trouble. "My own view is it's over," he said.

Tim Holeman, spokesman for the Western Interstate Energy Board, a subagency of the Western Governors Association, said if the Energy Department can't make Yucca Mountain work, "onsite storage is the solution. "Some will say it's safer consolidated, some will say it's safer decentralized. It's a political question as much as a scientific question."

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry organization, building a dry storage facility at a plant site requires an initial investment of $10 million to $20 million, with ongoing annual operating costs ranging anywhere from $5 million to $7 million.

The PFS facility would cost an estimated $3.1 billion over its 40-year lifetime, PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin says. Spent fuel currently is being kept in dry cask storage at 25 power plants, one decommissioned plant site, six plants in the process of decommissioning and two federal interim storage facilities in Idaho.

The Surry nuclear reactor on the James River in Virginia has always taken that path. Facility spokesman Richard Zuercher says ultimately the waste should go to a federal repository, but for now, it's safe where it is.

Dry cask storage involves packaging spent fuel rods underwater, where they have cooled for several years, into storage casks, then pumping out the water and replacing it with inert gas. The casks, typically steel cylinders, are either welded or bolted closed, then encased in additional steel, concrete or other material to provide radiation shielding.

The Surry plant was the first to use the technology, receiving a 20-year license for on-site storage in 1986. The plant now is applying for a 40-year extension, which it is expected to receive. "This 40-year license will be suitable to get us to end of life for storage of fuel," Zuercher said. The technology, he said, is safe.

The National Commission on Energy Policy agrees. In a report issued in December, the commission urged completion of a national underground repository, but said the government should also move ahead on a parallel path of building at least two centralized dry cask storage facilities.

On Wednesday, a Nevada congresswoman spoke in favor of a bill that would take money intended for Yucca and route it to nuclear waste technology development and dry cask storage at reactor sites.