The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a final rule Tuesday that essentially concludes nuclear waste can be stored on-site for 160 years or more after a reactor has shut down.
While the rule is not meant to "authorize or permit nuclear power plant licensees to store spent fuel for any length of time," the NRC's press release says, the accompanying environmental impact statement concludes nuclear waste can be safely stored in pools for several decades and in cement or steel casks for a longer period, even permanently should a deep geological repository never be built.
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The NRC's action sparked some frustration among Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station watchdogs.
The Plymouth plant, owned and operated by Entergy Corp., currently has more than 3,000 spent fuel rods stored in pools, and hulking dry casts are being constructed to increase the plant's capacity for spent fuel storage.
"It's pushing the problem forward to the next generation," said Diane Turco, longtime Pilgrim watchdog and co-founder of the Cape Downwinders, of the NRC's action. "To me, leaving them with this mess is unconscionable."
Entergy did not respond to a request for comment by Tuesday afternoon.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade organization supporting the nuclear industry, praised the NRC's action.
"In its rule, the commission concluded that 'spent fuel can be safely managed "» in dry casks during the short-term, long-term, and indefinite timeframes,'" said Ellen Ginsberg, the institute's vice president, secretary and general counsel in a written statement. "This conclusion confirms the safety and security of used nuclear fuel under the multilayered protective strategies used at commercial nuclear facilities."
The final rule and its accompanying environmental study are the result of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June 2012. The court issued a directive that the agency look more closely at the environmental impacts of waste storage and consider them from the perspective that a federal permanent waste disposal site might never be built.
An environmental impact statement analyzed the effects of storing radioactive spent fuel beyond the operating life of reactors in three separate time frames: 60 years, 100 years after the initial 60, and indefinitely. The analysis includes land use, air and water quality, and historic and cultural resources.
The NRC will lift its two-year-old suspension on licensing and relicensing nuclear plants, once the new rule becomes effective. That should occur 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register, expected to take place next month.
Currently there are 17 applications pending for license renewals at 11 sites, in various stages of review, and 12 applications for new reactors at eight sites, according to NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an international organization outspoken in its opposition to nuclear power and radioactive waste, issued a statement Tuesday criticizing the NRC.
It quoted Mary Olson, the organization's southeast regional coordinator, as saying, "This waste is lethal for centuries and causes cancer, infertility, birth defects and other harms to members of the public, as well as every other life form exposed."
David Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, wasn't surprised by the results of the NRC study.
"It's the only answer that was available," Lochbaum said. "If they were to say they weren't safe, what were they supposed to do (with the waste), go back in a time machine?"
Follow Christine Legere on Twitter: @chrislegereCCT.
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