NRC poised to begin Holtec/ELEA CISF/MRS licensing proceeding

Thanks to Don Hancock of Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico for watch-dogging the twists and turns. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is now poised to proceed with environmental scoping, as well as the legally contested licensing proceeding, for the Centralized Interim Storage Facility/Monitored Retrievable Storage targeted at southeastern New Mexico by Holtec International and the Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance.

Here is the official Federal Register (FR) Notice regarding environmental scoping, published on Friday, March 30, 2018.

As reported by Don Hancock today (Thursday, March 29, 2018):

[Linked above] is the...Federal Register notice that starts the 60-day public scoping period.

The scoping period starts [March 30] and runs through May 29 - I did check those dates with Jill Caverly, the [NRC] contact person in the FR notice.

The scoping meeting dates are not listed in the FR and won't be in the FR until next Friday [April 6, 2018], but are as I was told before and listed below. They will likely be posted on the NRC website on Monday [April 2, 2018] or Tuesday [April 3, 2018] and a [NRC] press release with the information will go out then.

Jill also confirmed that there will be a court reporter in Roswell, so people also can make scoping comments there.

For our information about how people submit comments:

By mail:

May Ma
Office of Administration
Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

By email:
The notice includes two ways, the "official" way won't accept comments until tomorrow [Friday, March 30, 2018]. So I'm checking about the other option(s).

Here is the way to submit written comments online, per the March 30, 2018 Federal Register Notice:

Federal Rulemaking website: Go to
http://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC–2018–0052.

And here are those dates Don Hancock mentioned above:

The formal announcement will [likely] be in Friday [April 6] Federal Register [Notice, as Don Hancock reported above].

The Dates [for NRC environmental scoping public comment meetings]: Monday, April 30 - Open House in Roswell from 4 to 7 [please note that all times are in Mountain Time]

Tuesday, May 1 - Open House in Hobbs from 6-7; 7-10 scoping comments

Thursday, May 3 - Open House in Carlsbad from 6-7; 7-10 scoping comments.

There will also be a phone in/webinar for public comments on Wednesday, April 25

The scoping comment period will be for 60 days. [It began March 30th, and will end May 29th]

The [legal] intervention notice won't be out until probably April 6 for a 60-day timeframe to file interventions/contentions.

Beyond Nuclear plans on sending a representative (Radioactive Waste Watchdog Kevin Kamps) to southeastern New Mexico, to take part in the environmental scoping public comment meetings.

ASAP, Beyond Nuclear will prepare and share sample public comments, of varying lengths and detail, that you can use to prepare and submit your own to NRC.

Beyond Nuclear also plans to legally intervene against the Holtec/ELEA CISF/MRS site. Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel are Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisbenberg, LLP of Washington, D.C. and Mindy Goldstein of Emory University's Turner Environmental Law Clinic in Atlanta, GA.

Orano [Areva], WCS Aim to Revive Spent Fuel Storage Project

As reported by the ExchangeMonitor. (Note that Orano is the new name for Areva -- apparently trying to shed the many negative connotations associated with its old name. Just as Areva was a rebranding from Cogema, in the 1990s!)

Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) requested the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) suspend its licensing proceeding to process an application for WCS to construct and operate a so-called "centralized" or "consolidated interim storage facility" (CISF) in Andrews County, west Texas last year. This, after a federal judge ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Justice, blocking a proposed merger between WCS and its rival EnergySolutions of Utah. The DOJ argued, and the judge agreed, the merger would violate anti-monopolization laws, specifically regarding so-called "low-level" radioactive waste disposal, in the U.S.

This left WCS essentially bankrupt, prompting it to request NRC to suspend its license application proceeding on the CISF.

NRC ultimately did suspend the proceeding. However, it took its sweet time in doing so. In fact, the night before a legal intervention deadline for groups like Beyond Nuclear to either speak or forever hold our peace, NRC issued a very short emailed statement, assuring potential intervenors the proceeding would be officially suspended. Groups like Beyond Nuclear feared that not intervening, while NRC's drop dead deadline passed, could be used to bar intervenors from ever intervening again -- for having missed the deadline. Legal interventions involve an immense amount of work, a heavy burden on not only non-profit environmental groups like Beyond Nuclear, but also all-volunteer grassroots groups, such as those in the vicinity of WCS, being targeted for this environmental injustice. Agonizingly, NRC left groups like Beyond Nuclear in limbo -- having to do the work anyway, even though the proceeding would, in the end, actually be suspended. NRC's very own behavior in this regard, above and beyond the WCS scheme, is itself an environmental injustice.

But on Jan. 26, 2018, J.F. Lehman & Company bought WCS. And now, it appears, WCS and Areva/Orano/Cogema are ready to hit the play button again on NRC's licensing proceeding.

We will now face two simultaneous highly radioactive waste de facto permanent surface storage parking lot dump NRC licensing proceedings at the same time. The NM site aims for 120,000 metric tons. The TX site, 40,000 metric tons. At 160,000 metric tons, that would be twice as much irradiated nuclear fuel than currently exists in the US. And it dwarfs what is targeted for burial at Yucca Mountain, NV under current law (70,000 metric tons). The NM and TX sites are only 38 miles apart. The scheme is to turn that area into a Nuclear Sacrifice Zone.

New Mexico Lawmakers Want More Time to Study Spent Fuel Storage Plan

As reported by John Stang in the ExchangeMonitor.

The article begins:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission should extend its public scoping comment period on a proposed spent reactor fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico to allow the state’s Legislature and public agencies to review and comment on the…[the rest of the article in behind a pay wall.]

Holtec International - Submittal of HI-STORE CIS (Consolidated Interim Storage Facility) License Application

Thank you to Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan for tracking down and circulating this info. And thank you to Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel, Diane Curran and Mindy Goldstein, for submitting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that forced release of these documents to the public:

(The page below is first linked here: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1805/ML18058A617.html )

Holtec International - Submittal of HI-STORE CIS

(Consolidated Interim Storage Facility) License

Application.

Accession Number: ML18058A617

Date Released: Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Package Contents

The following links on this page are to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. To obtain a free viewer for displaying this format, see ourPlugins, Viewers, and Other Tools.

• ML18058A598 - Holtec International - Submittal of HI-STORE CIS (Consolidated Interim Storage Facility) License Application. (2 page(s), 2/23/2018)
• ML18058A605 - HI-2177535, Rev 0, "Holtec International & Eddy Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) Underground Consolidated Interim Storage Facility - Emergency Response Plan." (63 page(s), 2/23/2018)
• ML18058A606 - HI-2177558, Rev 0, "Holtec International & Eddy Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) Underground Consolidated Interim Storage Facility - Decommissioning Plan." (10 page(s), 2/23/2018)
• ML18058A607 - HI-2177565, Rev 0, "Holtec International & Eddy Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) CIS Facility - Decommissioning Cost Estimate and Funding Plan." (22 page(s), 2/23/2018)
• ML18058A608 - HI-2177593, Rev 0, "Holtec International & Eddy Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) Underground CISF - Financial Assurance & Project Life Cycle Cost Estimates." (10 page(s), 2/23/2018)

3/1/18: NRC begins technical review of Holtec application for New Mexico spent nuclear fuel storage facility

See NRC OPA press release.