Nuclear safetyLawmakers want safer waste storage at nuclear plants
Lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a set of bills aimed at improving the safety and security of nuclear power plants’ waste in the event of a natural disaster or terrorism. One of the bills would require nuclear power plant operators to accelerate the transfer of nuclear waste stored in spent fuel pools into dry cask storage units. Current Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) regulations allow spent fuel to remain in spent fuel pools until the reactor completes decommissioning, which can take as long as sixty years. Another bill would stop the NRC from issuing exemptions to its emergency response and security requirements for reactors that have been permanently decommissioned.
On Tuesday, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California), Edward Markey (D- Massachusetts), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) introduced a set of bills aimed at improving the safety and security of nuclear power plants’ waste in the event of a natural disaster or terrorism. One of the bills would require nuclear power plant operators to accelerate the transfer of nuclear waste stored in spent fuel pools into dry cask storage units. Current Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations allow spent fuel to remain in spent fuel pools until the reactor completes decommissioning, which can take as long as sixty years.
Activists have argued that many spent fuel pools at nuclear plants are filled beyond their intended capacity and could cause a radioactive fire should an accident or terrorist attack occur. They recommend dry cask storage units, which are known to be safer and are already being used by some reactors.
Global Security Newswire reports that industry officials and the NRC have downplayed the risk, but a press release from the senators notes that even studies from the NRC have highlighted the dangers with storing waste in spent fuel pools. “Studies conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and independent experts have shown that partial draining of the water from a spent fuel pool caused by an accident or terrorist attack could result in a spontaneous fire, the release of large quantities of radiation and widespread contamination,” the study stated.
The proposed legislation will provide funding to help reactor licensees implement the required steps to transfer their waste to dry cask storage units, but it is unclear if the money would come from funds previously allocated for reactor decommissioning. Nuclear watchdog groups support the legislation but are worried that if decommissioning funds are used to accelerate the transfer of nuclear waste, then the remaining funds may be inadequate for cleanup after a plant closes.
The legislation also proposes an expansion from ten miles to fifty miles, the range of the emergency planning zone around reactors that do not comply with the accelerated waste transfer plan. The senators note that although NRC officials warned U.S. citizens within fifty miles of Japan’s Fukushima plant to leave the area during the 2011 disaster, the NRC requires U.S. nuclear plants to have emergency response plans that cover only a ten-mile area.
A separate bill from the same senators would stop the NRC from issuing exemptions to its emergency response and security requirements for reactors that have been permanently decommissioned. The senators wrote to NRC chairwoman Allison Macfarlane earlier this month noting that the commission had already granted exemptions to ten decommissioned plants with plans to extend exemptions to four more plants in the future.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer chairs, hosted a hearing on decommissioning issues on Wednesday. Findings from the hearing have not been released at press time.
