A new federal effort to find an alternative to the embattled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site faces a checkered past of setbacks and failures that could spell trouble for any new nuclear plan.
The government’s latest plan, endorsed last week by the Energy Department and a bipartisan group of senators, addresses some of the road blocks, such as community acceptance, but in the past that hasn’t been enough to overcome all the hurdles.
Case in point, the proposed interim waste facility in Skull Valley, Utah.
The facility seemed to have everything in its favor: It was licensed by the federal government, it had community backing by the Goshute Indian tribe who owned the surrounding land, and was deemed reliable by the nation’s highest nuclear board.
In the end, however, it was a federal agency that brought it to a standstill after the Department of Interior filed suit opposing the facility’s transportation route.
“Despite the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] granted license and subsequent affirmation of the reliability of the dry storage system by the nation’s highest nuclear board, the Skull Valley project died on December 21, 2012 … in the face of implacable opposition from the Department of Interior,” the site’s owners, Holtec International, said in a 2013 update.
Holtec would not comment on the details of the new effort to find an interim and permanent waste site. The company only said it will be weighing its options.
The Skull Valley facility would have served as a central storage point for the nation’s reactor waste, where it would sit until a more permanent storage site like Yucca Mountain was built.
The new government effort focuses on a “consensus-based process” that the senators, the administration and waste experts say is key to gaining the necessary community support needed for a new site. But even with community support, all the problems that haunt these projects may not be resolved.
A congressional aide was cautious in predicting where a new site would open, saying the senators would have to wait until the consensus process plays out before speculating where a site would be built, or when. Meanwhile, the Energy Department says it will move ahead soon on siting a new interim facility.
Other concerns, such as safety, also would pose a hurdle in discussing a potential new site.
For example, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico was once seen as a potential alternative to Yucca Mountain. But that idea may be off the table indefinitely after a radiation leak recently closed the plant.
The plant has had strong support from the surrounding communities who see it as a source of jobs and economic vitality for the region, according to proponents.
Former GOP Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici had pressed the idea of using the pilot project a few years ago when working on nuclear waste issues for the Bipartisan Policy Center. The New Mexico Republican was also a member of the blue ribbon commission on the nation’s nuclear future, established to provide recommendations on new waste solutions after the administration decided to scrap Yucca. The commission toured and examined the pilot project in forming its recommendations.
Domenici saw the naturally occurring salt formations that comprised the pilot plant in New Mexico as a perfect fit for the nation’s waste concerns. But talk of that idea has seemed to wane in recent years, and it is not clear whether using the pilot facility would ever be considered an option for storing highly radioactive waste from power plants after the accident.
Operations at the New Mexico facility were suspended last year after a radioactive leak forced the Energy Department to shutter operations and devise a recovery plan. The plant is slated to resume operations in 2016. It is primarily used for storing low-level radioactive waste.
Despite these setbacks, however, one company in Texas is prepping for a success story. The company Waste Control Specialists announced last month that it would seek a federal license to construct and operate an interim storage facility in Andrews County, Texas.
“The need for such a facility arises as a result of the ongoing decades-long search for a disposal solution for the nation’s used nuclear fuel,” the company said in a statement issued last month.
The Texas firm said it has community acceptance for the facility and is confident it “can provide a safe and comprehensive interim solution for used nuclear fuel, which has been accumulating at nuclear power plants across the country and for which no alternative for safe, secure storage and disposal currently exists.”
The plant still faces a long application process before the federal regulator, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and is not expected to be complete until the end of 2020. The company said the application process will begin next month.
