EnergySolutions will get another shot at satisfying a state consultant’s concerns about their plan to store depleted uranium in Tooele County.
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality announced this morning that it will delay the formal public comment on EnergySolutions’ proposal to dispose of large quantities of depleted uranium at the company’s Clive facility.
Monday morning the DEQ released their draft Safety Evaluation Report of EnergySolutions’ plans for storage of DU at Clive and started a 45-day public comment period on the report and EnergySolutions’ plan for storing DU.
While the safety evaluation report concluded there are no unresolvable issues with EnergySolutions’ DU plan, it did list eight issues that remained unresolved.
The public comment period is now on indefinite hold, according to Donna Kemp Spangler, DEQ communications director.
EnergySolutions requested the delay to give it adequate time to address resolutions to the unresolved issues.
“We were taken back a little by the report,” said Dan Shrum, EnergySolutions’ senior vice president for regulatory affairs, during a meeting of the state’s radiation control board on Tuesday afternoon. “We thought we had resolved these issues. We will get these issue resolved so the public will have a document to comment on that is complete and there will be no more changes.”
Shrum estimated that it may take two months for EnergySolutions’ consultant and DEQ’s consultant to reach agreement on the unresolved issues.
“These are minor issues,” Shrum said. “We believe we are very close on these issues.”
In a press release issued this morning, DEQ officials stated, “It is imperative that the formal administrative public comment process be as meaningful as possible. To accomplish this, DEQ will delay formal pubic comment and allow EnergySolutions additional time to address important components not addressed or resolved in the draft Safety Evaluation Report (SER) released on Monday.”
The public comment period will be reopened when the information necessary to fully analyze potential environmental and health impacts has been submitted by EnergySolutions, according to the press release.
In place of the public hearing scheduled for May 6 and 7, the DEQ will hold public information forums, according to Spangler.
The May 6 public information forum will be held in Tooele at the Tooele County Building at 47 S. Main Street from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The May 7 public information forum will be in Salt Lake City at the DEQ boardroom at 195 N. 1950 West.
Both public meetings will be preceded by an informational presentation from 5 p.m. until 5:45 p.m.
The DEQ also encourages the public to review the pertinent documents and information available on the DEQ’s website at www.deq.utah.gov, Spangler said.
The public comment period is the last step before the director of the Division of Radiation Control makes a final ruling on whether or not to issue a license amendment to EnergySolutions that will allow it to dispose of up to 700,000 metric tons of DU at Clive.
If the public comment period and final decision is not wrapped up by July 1, the director of a new DEQ division will make the final decision.
The Division of Radiation Control and the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management will be combined to form the Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control effective July 1, according to legislation passed last month.
In June 2011 EnergySolutions submitted a performance assessment on the suitability of Clive for long-term disposal of DU, in compliance with state regulations as part of the license amendment process.
The assessment, completed by a consultant hired by EnergySolutions, concluded that the Clive facility is a suitable final resting place for large quantities of depleted uranium.
The Division of Radiation Control hired an outside contractor to evaluate the performance assessment in August 2013.
Since last fall, EnergySolutions and the Division of Radiation Control have been exchanging information as the division and their consultant completed the draft Safety Evaluation Report of the performance assessment.
The draft Safety Evaluation Report was released Monday.
The storage of depleted uranium has been controversial because while it is initially lower in radiation than naturally occurring radium, it increases in radiation over time. It radioactivity peaks after one or two million years, according to the DRC.
Depleted uranium is not spent nuclear fuel. It is the byproduct of nuclear fuel production.
The more useful fissionable form of uranium is removed from mined natural uranium and used in reactors for fuel or in weapons production. The remaining material that contains a now lower concentration of other uranium isotopes is called depleted uranium.
Despite its increasing radioactivity, depleted uranium is classified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as Class A low-level radioactive waste, the lowest level of low level radioactive waste.