Savannah River Site Watch
www.srswatch.org
For Immediate Release
November 18, 2014
Contact: Tom Clements, SRS Watch, tel. 803-834-3084, [email protected]
SCE&G Set to Remove Highly Radioactive Spent Fuel from Cooling Pool at V.C. Summer Nuclear Plant
and Place it in On-Site “Dry Cask” Storage Facility
Columbia, SC – Underscoring the increasing risks of build-up of highly radioactive spent fuel at the site,
South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G) is set to soon start off-loading spent fuel from the crowded
storage pool at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant north of Columbia, South Carolina, for placement in large
storage casks adjacent to the reactor building.
SCE&G notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a letter dated November 12 that it “plans to begin
its initial spent fuel loading campaign on or after May 4, 2015.” The notification, required by NRC
regulations, was posted in the NRC’s digital library (ADAMS) on November 17 and was discovered by
Savannah River Site Watch (SRS Watch). The notification means that SCE&G is soon to open the “dry
cask” facility that has been under construction at the site.
The reactor obtained a license from the NRC in 1982 and as of 2011 had 525 metric tons of spent fuel in
its densely packed storage pool, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. V.C. Summer, the only
reactor now operating at the site, produces an average of about 20 MT of spent fuel per year so the
quantity of spent fuel in the cooling pool is now around 600 MT, necessitating the move to dry cask
storage. V.C. Summer, a pressurized water reactor (PWR) refuels about one-third of the reactor core
every 18 months.
“Given the risks of storage of spent fuel in a densely packed cooling pool, it is good to see SCE&G moving
to dry cask storage but the nuclear waste problem at the site only continues to grow,” according to Tom
Clements, director of SRS Watch, a public interest organization based in Columbia, South Carolina.
“With the storage pool now full and spent fuel being moved into casks for storage outside, the problem
of no national disposition plan for the highly radioactive spent fuel underscores the environmental and
health dilemma posed by operation of the V.C. Summer reactor. We support on-site, dry cask storage as
an interim measure before a plan is developed to better manage such dangerous radioactive waste but
all spent fuel management options hold long-term risks and high costs,” added Clements.
Spent fuel contains a deadly amount of radiation and must be shielded from human beings and isolated
from the environment for lengthy period of time. Given the host of radioactive isotopes it contains and
the radiation emitted, workers face the greatest risk in handling and monitoring the irradiated material
removed from the core of the reactor.
According to SCANA’s 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Nov. 11, 2014,
the spent fuel pool will be filled by 2017, necessitating off-loading of some of the accumulated waste:
“The Nuclear Waste Act required that the United States government accept and permanently dispose of
high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel by January 31, 1998. The Nuclear Waste Act also
imposed on utilities the primary responsibility for storage of their spent nuclear fuel until the repository
is available. SCE&G entered into a Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or HighLevel Radioactive Waste with the DOE in 1983. To date, the federal government has not accepted any
spent fuel from Summer Station Unit 1, and it remains unclear when the repository may become
available. SCE&G has on-site spent nuclear fuel storage capability in its existing fuel pool until at least
2017, and is constructing a dry cask storage facility to accommodate the spent nuclear fuel output for
the life of Summer Station Unit 1.”
Establishment of the dry cask facility, called an “Independent Spent Fuel Storage Facility,” at the V.C.
Summer site is the last reactor site in South Carolina to establish a dry cask storage facility. Such an ISFSI
site consists of the large dry casks being placed on a pad inside the security perimeter at the site. SRS
Watch supports more robust protection of the casks, including bunkers, to protect them from rocket
attack and sabotage.
SRS Watch has received reports of problems in construction of the dry cask facility but has not been able
to procure documentation of the problems, which relate to improper installation of electrical
components.
Two new reactors at the V.C. Summer site are under construction and have been faced with cost
overruns and delays. If those reactors ever start operating, the spent fuel from them will also be stored
in pools and also has no final resting place.
The seven operating reactors in South Carolina currently store over 2500 metric tons of spent fuel.
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a report released on November 12, 2014,
“In 2013, about 70 percent of accumulated spent nuclear fuel—about 50,000 metric tons—was stored in
pools, with the remaining 30 percent— about 22,000 metric tons—in dry storage.”
Notes:
Letter by SCE&G to NRC, November 12, 2014 – posted on SRS Watch website
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/dry_cask_loading_letter_to_nrc_nov_12_2014.p
df
Notice in Federal Register, February 4, 2014, on licensing of dry cask facility at V.C. Summer: “In the
Matter of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, Virgil C. Summer ; Nuclear Station Independent Spent
Fuel Storage Installation Order Modifying License (Effective Immediately):
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-02-04/pdf/2014-02324.pdf
SCANA 10-Q quarterly filing with the NRC for the quester ending September 30, 2014, filed on Nov. 10,
2014: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/91882/000075473714000041/a2014930-10q.htm
Union of Concerned Scientists fact sheet “Nuclear Power Safety in South Carolina,” with amount of
spent fuel at SC reactor sites as of 2011
http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/nuclear_power/nuclear-power-insouth-carolina.pdf
SCE&G presentation to the SC Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council on April 10, 2014:
SCE&G Nuclear Programs Update
NRC information on VC Summer:
http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/sum.html
NRC web page on spent fuel storage:
http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage.html
NRC map of dry cask storage facilities at US reactors:
http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/map-fuel-storage-facilities.pdf
Government Accountability Office (GAO) report spent fuel management, released November 12, 2014
http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/666454.pdf
Congressional Research Service, May 24, 2012, “U.S. Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage,”
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42513.pdf
Report on “Reducing the Risks of Spent Power Reactor Fuel,” by Bob Alvarez, May 12, 2013:
http://www.totalwebcasting.com/tamdata/Documents/hcf/201303121/Reducing%20the%20risks%20of%20spent%20fuel%20storage.pdf
Union of Concerned Scientists fact sheet on spent fuel storage:
http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/nuclear_power/fact-sheet-spentfuel-storage.pdf