|
|
Two Separate NRC Efforts Address Spent Fuel Safety |
Today,
the NRC is making publicly available four documents relating to the
safe storage of spent nuclear fuel. The first three represent the
agency’s work to date on revising its waste confidence rule and
analyzing the environmental effects of extended spent fuel storage. The
fourth is a draft study examining whether earlier transfer of spent fuel
from pools to dry cask storage would significantly reduce risks to
public health and safety.
Although
both waste confidence and the spent fuel pool study discuss the safety
of spent fuel, these are two separate efforts with distinct goals. So we
wanted to explain the processes here on the blog to help avoid
confusion.
The three waste confidence documents being posted today on the NRC website are:
•
A staff paper to the Commission (SECY-13-0061) recommending publication
of a proposed rule and draft generic environmental impact statement, or
GEIS, for public comment;
•
A draft Federal Register notice containing the proposed rule and a
“Statement of Considerations,” or preamble, that explains the rule, the
conclusions in the GEIS that support the rule, and the changes in format
that the NRC is recommending as part of this rulemaking (Enclosure1);
and
•
The draft generic environmental impact statement on the effects
of continued storage of spent fuel (Enclosure 2); it serves as the
regulatory basis for the proposed rule. A list of reference documents
used in preparing the GEIS is also being posted on the NRC’s waste confidence webpage.
These
documents are now before the Commission and are being made publicly
available under standard agency procedure. The Commission may approve,
modify or disapprove these documents, so we are not yet seeking public
comments. We hope to publish them officially for comment in late August
or early September, but that timeframe depends on Commission approval.
When
they are published, the 75-day official public comment period will
begin. During that period, we will hold 10 public meetings around the
country to present the proposed rule and draft GEIS and receive your
comments. Two of these meetings will be at NRC headquarters in
Rockville, Md. The rest will be in New York, Massachusetts, Colorado,
southern California, central California, Minnesota, Ohio, and North
Carolina.
Details will be announced closer to the dates on the NRC’s public meetings webpage and the waste confidence webpage.
The
NRC began this study after the Fukushima nuclear accident in March
2011. Although the spent fuel pools at Fukushima did not fail, the
accident sparked debate in this country over whether it might be safer
to transfer spent fuel from pools to dry cask storage sooner than is the
norm.
The
study considered a pool at a boiling-water reactor with Mark 1
containment (the type used at Fukushima and 23 U.S. reactors) and an
earthquake several times stronger than the pool was designed to
withstand. It examined both a “full” pool and one with less fuel and
more space between the assemblies, with and without emergency procedures
to add water to the pool in the unlikely event an earthquake causes the
pool to drain.
The
pool study and the waste confidence review are separate efforts. The
draft GEIS does not explicitly reference the pool study, though the
waste confidence staff worked closely with the staff preparing the pool
study while developing relevant chapters of the draft GEIS. If a final
version of the study is published before the final waste confidence
GEIS, the staff will incorporate a reference to it in the final GEIS.
These
four documents represent two distinct NRC efforts on one very important
subject: the safe storage of spent fuel and its environmental impacts.
We look forward to your comments on the draft spent fuel pool study now,
and on the waste confidence proposed rule and draft environmental study
in the fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment