News Coverage
Relicensing of nuclear plants raises waste storage concerns
Published January 16, 2005
South Carolina's nuclear power plants have been given the go-ahead to operate many years into the future, raising some concerns about how radioactive waste produced at these aging reactors will be stored.
Operating licenses for the state's seven nuclear reactors have been renewed into the 2030s and beyond for some facilities, but some watchdog groups are troubled the waste those reactors produce will be left behind. They say the relicensing process, which involves environmental and safety approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was streamlined and boosted the industry for years to come.
Nuclear industry officials disagree, citing an outstanding safety record and efficient energy.
Oconee Nuclear Station, one of the nation's oldest nuclear power plants, was just the second facility in the country to have its license renewed for an additional 20 years into the 2030s.
The plant began operating in the early 1970s and says it has generated more electricity than any other nuclear station in the United States. But it's also generated tons of waste, or spent nuclear fuel.
A recent report by the Environmental Working Group found that because of the extended operating licenses and delays with a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the waste generated could be left at the sites indefinitely.
"What we basically found was the Bush administration told us a whopper two years ago when it said Yucca Mountain would solve our nuclear waste problems," said Dusty Horitt, one of the report's authors. "We found that even if Yucca Mountain opens up on time, we will be storing nuclear waste in our local communities for years to come."
Leaving the material on site is a concern for many, since some waste is stored above ground in sealed containers near schools, rivers and lakes.
Linda Conley, a spokeswoman for Oconee Nuclear Station, which is owned and operated by Duke Energy Corp., said safety and security are top concerns.
Conley said some the waste at the site is stored in water, which shields workers from radiation, and some of it is kept in aboveground containers, or dry cask storage. Most of the facilities in South Carolina use both methods to store waste.
The Oconee facility is expanding its dry cask storage, like other plants in the state, since the waste currently has no where to go. Oconee was expecting to ship the waste to Yucca Mountain, but underfunding and legal delays have prevented the repository from opening. A planned opening in 2010 likely will be delayed.
Oconee is ready for the site to open, Conley said, noting that Duke has contributed millions of dollars each year to a "nuclear waste fund" to support a repository.
"We want something back for that money," she said. "We want to have a place to store our spent fuel. But then we obviously have a commitment to our customers to continue to safely operate."
The dry cask storage expansion will serve the facility through 2009.
"We certainly don't want to build more than we need to," Conley said. "But we would have plans ... to continue those expansions all the way through the end of our license."
If even Yucca opens, the Environmental Working Group report said the repository can't hold all the nation's nuclear waste.
At Oconee, more than 1,000 metric tons of waste will be left on site after the license extensions expire, the report said. That's slightly less than the amount of waste currently stored at the site, the report said.
South Carolina Electric & Gas' V.C. Summer plant stores its waste in pools.
Spokesman Eric Boomhower said there's enough capacity to safely store spent fuel there through 2018. The Jenkinsville plant then would move to dry storage, he said.
David McNeil, a spokesman for Progress Energy's H.B. Robinson plant near Florence, said the industry has an outstanding record of wet and dry storage, and the relicensing process was rigorous. It involved environmental and safety reviews by the company and commission, which lasted several years.
However, Kevin Camps of the Washington-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service says the NRC has made relicensing easy.
"Unfortunately, a lot of utilities are deferring maintenance or trying to get around having to even to do the maintenance so that kind of exacerbates that problem," he said. "So we're very concerned."
McNeil said South Carolina has benefited from getting its energy from a variety of sources, which can control costs and avoid shortages. "Nuclear power is one of the most efficient sources of electric generation," he said.