USA’s nuclear plant relicensing now stalled by a federal appeals court

at Indian Point and other facilities going through license renewal, those [radioactive waste] issues will be back on the table

Court Forces a Rethinking of Nuclear Fuel Storage , NYT, By MATTHEW L. WALD , June 8, 2012, WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acted hastily in concluding that spent fuel can be stored safely at nuclear plants for the next century or so in the absence of a permanent repository, and it must consider what will happen if none are ever established, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday .

In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that in deciding that the fuel would be safe for many decades, the commission did not carry out an analysis of individual storage pools at reactors across the country, treating them generically instead. The commission also did not adequately analyze the risk that cooling water will leak from the pools or that the fuel will ignite, the court wrote.

The commission has relied on its conclusion that spent fuel rods can be safely stored at plants to extend the operating licenses of dozens of power reactors in recent years and to license four new ones.

The plaintiffs — four states, including New York, environmental groups and an American Indian organization — declared victory, although the precise implications were not clear. Still, it appeared that the commission would have to prepare and publicly defend an assessment that storage for many decades or even indefinitely did not entail large risks…..

Some Republican lawmakers are now hoping to revive the idea of storage at Yucca but would face determined opposition, above all from the leader of the Senate’s Democratic majority, Harry Reid of Nevada.

“The commission apparently has no long-term plan other than hoping for a geologic repository,” the appeals court wrote.

If the federal government “continues to fail in its quest” to find a place for spent nuclear fuel, then the material “will seemingly be stored on site at nuclear plants on a permanent basis,” the court said, and the commission will have to size up the environmental risks of this.

Failing to establish a repository is “a possibility that cannot be ignored,” the judges said……

New York State officials said they hoped the ruling meant that the commission would have to complete a sweeping analysis of waste storage at reactors before extending the licenses of the Indian Point reactors in Westchester County, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wants shut down. The initial 40-year licenses at the two operating reactors there expire in 2014 and 2016.

John J. Sipos, a state assistant attorney general, said the safety rule that was at issue in the case had effectively taken “the waste issue off the table” in license renewals in recent years.

“We think that at Indian Point and other facilities going through license renewal, those issues will be back on the table,” Mr. Sipos said. He added that the commission’s analysis will have to cover whether waste should be moved out of the spent fuel pools and into sealed steel-and-concrete capsules called dry casks. The analysis will also have to address what the environmental impact of the casks will be if no burial site is built, he said……

Geoffrey H. Fettus, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council who argued the case, said that because of Friday’s ruling, “this is the first instance where the long-term implications of our nuclear waste disposal policy will have to be given a hard public look.” Opponents of nuclear power have long cited the lack of a firm plan for a waste burial place in opposing license extensions for reactors. In the meantime, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan last year have sharpened a debate about how the fuel is stored now.

Most of it is kept in deep pools made of steel-reinforced concrete and lined with stainless steel, in water that is monitored and filtered. At most plants those pools have been packed full, and some older fuel has been moved into dry casks…… http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/science/earth/court-says-nuclear-agency-must-rethink-fuel-storage.html

June 11, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA

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