Transport plan puts Yucca back to 2020

Monday, 19 January 2009

Plans to transport used nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain repository would not be enacted before 2020, according to a new filing by the US Department of Energy (DoE).

 

Yucca Mountain (Image: DoE)

As part of its obligations under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the DoE is responsible for developing and implementing a system to transport US used nuclear fuel and high-level waste (HLW) from where the material is generated or stored to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository.

 

The facility was supposed to be complete by 1998, but a multitude of delays have put the earliest operating date at 2017. Now the proposed start of transport to the site in 2020 indicates storage operations would be further delayed.

 

US nuclear utilities have paid over $25 billion in fees to the government's Nuclear Waste Fund for the DoE to build the Yucca Mountain. Because of the delay, the DoE is liable for nuclear power companies' additional storage costs for the period between 1998 and the start-up of a final storage facility. This liability is currently put at $11 billion, assuming a 2020 starting date.

 

Transport
 
The National Transportation Plan, released through the DoE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), outlines the DoE's current strategy and planning for such a transportation system. It describes the elements of the national transportation system that OCRWM is developing, the phases of that development effort and how OCRWM will collaborate with stakeholders in the development and implementation of that system.
 
The types and amounts of materials planned to be transported to the repository, the plan says, include 63,000 tonnes of heavy metal (tHM) of commercial used nuclear fuel; 2333 tHM of DoE used fuel (from weapons production reactors, research reactors and certain other reactors) and fuel from US Navy nuclear-powered ships and submarines; and 4667 tHM of DoE HLW resulting from the reprocessing of commercial and DoE used fuel.
 
The DoE plans to rely on a combination of rail, truck and possibly barge to transport the used fuel and HLW to the repository from 76 sites across the USA. Most of the material will be transported by rail. Rail shipments will be the mode of choice for sites with rail access.
 
To support the development of the transportation system, DoE has two capital projects: the National Transportation Project and the Nevada Rail Infrastructure Project. The National Transportation Project has responsibility for the acquisition of rail and truck cask systems; design, acquisition, manufacture, testing and acceptance of rolling stock; and development of facilities to maintain and store casks and rolling stock. The Nevada Rail Infrastructure Project has responsibility for the design and construction of a new rail line and associated support facilities within the State of Nevada.
 
The OCRWM said the transportation system would be developed "in stages that are consistent with waste acceptance schedules and the startup and subsequent operation of the repository." It added, "The transportation infrastructure will continue to expand until full operating capability is achieved."
 
In a notice of the release of the plan published in the Federal Register, the DoE said that the OCRWM "does not expect actual shipments to begin before 2020, but has started the transportation planning process well in advance to ensure the concerns and input of state, tribal and local officials, as well as other involved and interested parties, are taken into account."
 
The public has until the end of April in which to submit comments on the plan.
 
The DoE said, "This plan will be updated as appropriate to reflect progress in the development and implementation of the transportation system, accommodate changes to the waste management system, and incorporate stakeholder and public comments." It added, "OCRWM also anticipates that detailed implementation plans will be developed in the future in collaboration with the stakeholder community."
 
The USA has been planning the repository for many years. Since 1977, when it ruled that used fuel was to be treated as waste and could not be reprocessed to recover uranium and reduce its volume, the government has had a responsibility to provide final disposal of the fuel in a deep geologic disposal facility. According to the 1982 legislation, the DoE was supposed to start accepting fuel from utilities early in 1998, but its failure to provide a repository on time has meant that the fuel has had to be stored at reactor sites.
 
Yucca Mountain was approved by Congress and President Bush in 2002 as the site for the USA's first permanent used fuel and HLW geologic repository. At the beginning of June 2008, the DoE submitted a licence application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the construction of the repository.
 
The fate of the Yucca Mountain project would be with the next US President. Barack Obama has previously stated that he "believes that Yucca Mountain is not an option" for long-term management of wastes.