The Waste Confidence Rule

Doug Kripke

Overview: Waste Confidence

• Definition• History• Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)• Dry Cask Storage of SNF• EIS Conclusions• NRC Next Steps• Impact and Outlook

Waste Confidence

1. Provide reasonable assurance an offsite disposal solution will be available for SNF by the expiration of the plants’ operating licenses

2. If not, can SNF fuel be stored safely on site beyond the expiration of the plants’ operating license?

History of Waste Confidence

• 1984: NRC establishes Waste Confidence Decision and Rule (10 CFR 51.23) with five key findings

1. Technical feasibility of a geologic repository2. A geologic repository will be available when needed3. SNF can be safely managed until geologic repository

available4. SNF can be safely stored at reactor site in used fuel

pools for 30 years without significant environmental impacts

5. On or off-site storage for SNF will be made available if required

History of Waste Confidence• The Rule was updated in 1990, reviewed in 1999, and

updated again 2010 with the termination of Yucca Mountain• Dec 2010: on-site storage → 60 years• June 2012: US Court of Appeals strikes down 2010

amendment for inadequate EIS• Aug 2012: NRC suspended issuance of operating licenses and

license renewals until Waste confidence rule resolved → currently drafting EIS– “If the licensee of a nuclear power plant…files a sufficient application for

renewal of either an operating license or a combined license at least 5 years before the expiration of the existing license, the existing license will not be deemed to have expired until the application has been finally determined” (“Effect of timely renewal application” NRC 2012)

History of Waste Confidence

(http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/christine-pineda-10-04-2011.pdf)

(NUREG-1437, 2013, p. 3-92)

History of Waste Confidence

History of Waste Confidence

(http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/christine-pineda-10-04-2011.pdf)

EIS for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants

(NUREG-1437, 2013, p. 3-33)

EIS for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants

EIS for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants

EIS for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants – Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF)

• “Delays in siting a permanent repository, coupled with rapidly filling spent fuel pools at some plants, have led utilities to seek means of continued onsite storage” [NUREG-1437 2013, 3-154]1) Expanded, re-racked, or consolidated pool storage2) Aboveground dry storage3) Longer fuel burn-up to reduce the amount of spent

fuel requiring interim storage4) Shipment of spent fuel to other plants

AR Interim Spent Fuel Storage Sites

(Saling and Fentiman, 2001, p. 71)

AFR Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations

Spent Nuclear Fuel

Dry Cask Storage

EIS for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants– Mitigating Actions

• “NRC decisions and recommendations concerning the ultimate disposition of spent nuclear fuel are ongoing and outside the scope of license renewal” (NUREG-1437, 2013, 4-177)

• “NRC has determined that spent nuclear fuel could be stored onsite safely and with a minimal environmental impact during the license renewal term and the NRC is working on a separate rulemaking and EIS for the Waste Confidence Decision and Rule to address the period after the cessation of reactor operations” (NUREG-1427, 2013, 4-221)

Waste Confidence EIS – Timeframes

(NUREG-2157, 2013, p. xxviii)

Waste Confidence EIS - Conclusions

• Minimal amounts of LLW and Mixed Waste caused by the continued storage of spent fuel in spent fuel pools and at-reactor ISFSIs

• “The amount of mixed waste generated from the operation and maintenance of the spent fuel pool and ISFSI is expected to be minimal compared to that of an operating reactor” (NUREG-2157, 2013, p. 4-56)

• Radiological and non-radiological environmental impacts associated with the management and disposal of mixed waste are expected to be SMALL for all timeframes at both AR and AFR sites (NUREG-2157)

Waste Confidence EIS - Conclusions • “The environmental risk of the postulated accidents involving

continued storage of spent fuel in pools are SMALL, because all important safety structures, systems, and components involved with the fuel storage are designed to withstand these design basis accidents without compromising the safety functions” (NUREG-2157, 2013, p. 4-76)

• “All NRC-licensed dry cask storage systems are designed to withstand all postulated design basis accidents (Design Events III and IV) with no loss of safety functions…the environmental impact of the design basis accidents is SMALL” (NUREG-2157, 2013, p. 4-79)

Waste Confidence EIS - Conclusions (NUREG-2157, 2013, p. 4-91)

NRC Next Steps

• 2014: Complete Waste Confidence EIS Final Report with public comments

• 2019: Develop final EIS and final Waste Confidence Decision and Rule

Waste Confidence Impact and Outlook• “Based on EIA’s analysis of the Waste

Confidence Rule and ongoing proceedings, the AEO2013 Reference case assumes that the issuance of new operating licenses will not be affected” (AEO 2013, p. 12)

• “Growth in Nuclear generation is outpaced by the increases in generation from natural gas and renewables” (AEO 2013, p. 44)

• Nuclear capacity projected to increase by 19.0 GW by 2040– Power uprates at existing plants: 8.0 GW– New Construction: 11.0 GW

• 5.5 GW from Watts Bar Unit 2, Summer Units 2 and 3, and Vogtle Units 3 and 4

Waste Confidence Impact and Outlook

Waste Confidence Impact and Outlook

Thank you for your time!

Questions?