Decommissioning milestone at Oak Ridge reactor

The lower section of the reactor vessel of the Oak Ridge Research Reactor has been removed and transferred to a cask for eventual shipment and disposal. The reactor was an isotope production and irradiation facility from 1958 and was permanently shut down in July 1987.

Waste & Recycling 15 August 2024

 

Water leak within Fukushima Daiichi 2 reactor building

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced the discovery on 9 August of a water leak at unit 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant involving an estimated 25 tonnes of water from the used fuel cooling system pump room and the heat exchanger room.

Regulation & Safety 16 August 2024

 

SIGNED: Bipartisan ADVANCE Act to Boost Nuclear Energy Now Law

July 9, 2024

Senate EPW leaders Capito, Carper join House Commerce leaders McMorris Rodgers, Pallone in celebrating enactment of landmark nuclear energy legislation, attend White House signing ceremony

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the president signed into law the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, bipartisan legislation to provide a major boost to the future of nuclear energy in America.

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, EPW Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.), U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.-05), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee, and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.-06), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released the below statements celebrating the enactment of the bipartisan bill (S.870), which passed the Senate by a vote of 88-2 and passed the House by a vote of 393-13.

“With the ADVANCE Act being signed into law, we secured a landmark win for the future of nuclear energy here in America,” EPW Ranking Member Capito said. “Getting substantive, bipartisan policy across the finish line isn’t always easy, but this is the result of years of work to build widespread consensus about the benefits of advanced nuclear reactors to our electric grid, economy, and environment. I’m thrilled the ADVANCE Act is now law to enable the deployment of new nuclear and help keep the United States as the world’s nuclear energy leader.”

“Today is a momentous day for our climate and America’s clean energy future,” EPW Chairman Carper said. “The urgency of the climate crisis demands a swift transition to cleaner energy sources, and fortunately the ADVANCE Act helps us to do just that. This bipartisan law will strengthen our energy and national security, lower greenhouse gas emissions and create thousands of new jobs, while ensuring the continued safety of this zero-emissions energy source. I’m thankful to each of my colleagues and their staffs who helped write, pass and deliver this bill to the President’s desk.”

“The Energy and Commerce Committee has a rich history of advancing major bipartisan solutions, and I’m extremely proud that our years of hard work to strengthen American nuclear energy have paid off with this significant legislation that will improve energy reliability and reduce costs for American families and businesses,” E&C Chair McMorris Rodgers said. “This is a major victory for the American people and will help cement U.S. energy leadership for decades to come. I want to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly to get this legislation signed into law, especially the Chair of our Energy Subcommittee and bill author Rep. Jeff Duncan.”

“Nuclear power plays an important role in producing carbon-free power for our electric grid, and now our nuclear industry will have the framework it needs to strengthen America’s energy leadership,” E&C Ranking Member Pallone said. “By ensuring we can deploy safer and more reliable nuclear power, the ADVANCE Act will help combat our dependence on dirty fossil fuels, strengthening our energy independence and securing our economic security.  I’m grateful to have worked alongside my colleagues to get this across the finish line.”

The ADVANCE Act will:
 

• Facilitate American Nuclear Energy Leadership by:
• • Empowering the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to lead in international forums to develop regulations for advanced nuclear reactors.
  • Directing the Department of Energy (DOE) to improve its process for approving the export of American technology to international markets, while maintaining strong standards for nuclear non-proliferation.

• Support Development and Deployment of New Nuclear Energy Technologies by:
• • Reducing regulatory costs for companies seeking to license advanced nuclear reactor technologies.
  • Creating a prize to incentivize the successful deployment of next-generation reactor technologies.
  • Requiring the NRC to develop a pathway to enable the timely licensing of microreactors and nuclear facilities at brownfield and retired fossil-fuel energy generation sites.
  • Directing the NRC to establish an accelerated licensing review process to site and construct reactors at existing nuclear sites.

• Preserve Existing Nuclear Energy by:
• • Modernizing outdated rules that restrict international investment.

• Strengthen America’s Nuclear Energy Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain Infrastructure by:
• • Directing the NRC to enhance its ability to qualify and license accident-tolerant fuels and advanced nuclear fuels that can increase safety and economic competitiveness for existing reactors and the next generation of advanced reactors.
  • Tasking the NRC to evaluate advanced manufacturing techniques to build nuclear reactors better, faster, cheaper, and smarter.

• Improve Commission Resources and Efficiency by:
• • Providing flexibility for the NRC to better manage and invest its resources in activities that support NRC’s modernization efforts and address staffing issues.
  • Providing the NRC Chair the tools to hire and retain exceptionally well-qualified individuals to successfully and safely review and process applications for advanced nuclear reactor licenses.
  • Requiring the NRC to update its Mission Statement to reflect modern beneficial use of nuclear material and energy.
  • Mandating the NRC to establish a licensing structure to support an efficient, timely, and predictable regulatory review.
  • Charging the NRC to streamline the NEPA environmental review process.

Full text of the ADVANCE Act within S.870 can be found here on page 4.

Ranking Member Capito’s floor remarks ahead of the Senate passing the bill on June 18 can be found here.

 

 Nuclear Waste Disposal

Issue Summary

Radiation is used in many different industries, including as fuel for nuclear power plants and in the production of nuclear weapons for national defense. These uses generate nuclear waste, and this waste must be disposed of in safe and effective ways. There are three main types of nuclear waste—high-level, transuranic, and low-level waste—and each type must be disposed of according to its risk to human health and the environment. For instance, high-level nuclear waste remains highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years and must be disposed of in such a way that it can be securely isolated for a long period of time.

The Department of Energy (DOE) oversees the treatment and disposal of radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear weapons program; it is also responsible for siting, building, and operating a geologic repository to dispose of nuclear waste. There are a number of ways that DOE could improve how it stores, treats, and disposes of this waste.

For instance:

• The nation has over 85,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. DOE is responsible for disposing of this high-level waste in a permanent geologic repository but has yet to build such a facility because policymakers have been at an impasse over what to do with this spent fuel since 2010. As a result, the amount of spent nuclear fuel stored at nuclear power plants across the country continues to grow by about 2,000 metric tons a year. Meanwhile, the federal government has paid billions of dollars in damages to utilities for failing to dispose of this waste and may potentially have to pay tens of billions of dollars more in coming decades. If Congress were to authorize a new consent-based process for siting a repository, it could help break the impasse over a permanent solution for commercial spent nuclear fuel.  
• DOE also oversees the treatment and disposal of about 90 million gallons of radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear weapons program. Most of this waste is stored in tanks at 3 DOE sites. According to federal law, certain high-level mixed waste must be vitrified—a process in which the waste is immobilized in glass—and disposed of in a deep geologic repository. However, DOE estimates that about 90% of the volume of this waste contains about 10% of the radioactivity. DOE considers this portion of the waste to be low-activity waste, which experts believe may be safely treated and disposed of with methods other than vitrification. Nevertheless, DOE plans to vitrify a portion of this low-activity waste at its Hanford Site in Washington State but may face challenges starting operations of a treatment facility to do so.  In addition, DOE may be able to reduce certain risks and save tens of billions of dollars by adopting alternative approaches to treating and disposing of a portion of Hanford’s low-activity radioactive waste. DOE has also faced challenges designing and building high-level waste treatment facilities at Hanford and Idaho National Laboratory. Additionally, the United States will continue to generate new high-level defense waste as a result of its ongoing weapons program and efforts to modernize the nuclear stockpile.

The Partially Constructed Hanford Pretreatment Facility in Washington State, 2013 and 2020

• Transuranic nuclear waste is waste contaminated by nuclear elements heavier than uranium, such as diluted plutonium. The United States has only one deep geologic repository for the disposal of defense-related transuranic waste—the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico. However, DOE has experienced challenges constructing a new ventilation system and may face delays in expanding WIPP to dispose of all defense transuranic waste.

Underground tunnel at the geologic repository for defense waste in New Mexico

• Low-level waste may be generated from both civilian and defense activities. Low-level waste is generally defined as waste that is not high-level or transuranic waste. Low-level waste decays rapidly and can typically be disposed of in a near-surface disposal facility. Three gaseous diffusion plants—located near Paducah, Kentucky; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee—at one time enriched uranium for both defense and civilian purposes. However, these plants were rendered obsolete by newer, more efficient technologies. As DOE decontaminates and decommissions these facilities, it generates significant amounts of waste, including building materials and hazardous and radioactive waste removed from equipment and piping. Much of this waste is considered to be low-level waste and must be disposed of at a low-level waste disposal facility. However, DOE’s fund to clean up these plants is likely not large enough—cleanup costs may exceed the amount in this fund by $45 billion. In addition, DOE is working to convert DUF6 (a dangerous byproduct of the uranium enrichment process) into a more stable chemical form that can be disposed of or reused. DOE estimates it could cost at least $7.2 billion to convert and dispose of the DUF6 as low-level waste. If DOE can transfer portions of its DUF6 inventory—such as by selling some to a private company—it could save billions. However, it is unclear if DOE has authority to sell depleted uranium. Moreover, DOE is responsible for disposing of certain low-level nuclear waste from medical equipment, metals in nuclear reactors, and cleanup sites—commonly referred to as greater-than-class C waste. However, no legal options currently exist to dispose of this waste.