BUILDING CONFIDENCE IN BOREHOLE DISPOSAL – ONE STEP AT A TIME

In the US, experience has shown that building and maintaining public support for the permanent disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) is an exceedingly difficult challenge. International experience has shown that confidence in the regulatory framework is a necessary prerequisite to gaining public support. The United States has two regulations governing disposal. The first – 10 CFR Part 60 – has never been applied and is widely considered obsolete. The second – 10 CFR Part 63 – is specific to disposal at a single site at Yucca Mountain Nevada. An effort to license Yucca Mountain has been put on hold by elected officials from the host state who lack confidence that a repository designed to this regulation will be safe. The US currently has no regulatory framework for borehole disposal.

The US does have a proven regulatory framework for the storage of SNF under 10 CFR Part 72. This regulation provides for storage over renewable 40-year periods. Over 3000 dry cask storage systems have already been licensed under this regulation, and several of these licenses have been renewed. Because the latest borehole disposal technologies offer the ability to retrieve SNF, it is possible that a borehole disposal project could be licensed first for storage and later for permanent disposal once public acceptance of a regulatory framework for this purpose could be gained.

This concept – known as storage with intent to confirm disposal – would be well suited for the onsite disposal of SNF at an advanced reactor. It would allow the public to be involved in both the decision on whether or not to permanently dispose at the reactor site and the development of the regulatory framework to assure its safety. This would be accomplished through a dialogue that would build on the experience gained with storage over one or more 40-year periods. If agreement could not be reached, the SNF could be retrieved and transported offsite for disposal. This approach was recently discussed in an EPRI report entitled Feasibility of Borehole Co-Location with Advanced Reactors for Onsite Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel (#3002019751).