South Carolina has a history of being willing to take in radioactive waste from other states. The Savannah River Site stores high-level radioactive waste from other states and other countries. There have recently been protests over a plan to move waste from the Chalk River Labs in Canada down to the Savannah River Site. There is a dump in Barnwell Country, S.C. used for low-level radioactive waste generated at U.S. nuclear power plants. In 2000, the dump was closed to all states but S.C., New Jersey, and Connecticut. That facility has be criticized for allowing tritium to leak into the groundwater in the area.
Spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants nation-wide are filling up and reactors will have to be shut down if temporary storage is not created in the near future. S.C. is no exception and needs to get temporary storage for spent nuclear fuel built as soon as possible. Since the Yucca Mountain Repository project for permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel was cancelled in 2009, there will be no permanent storage option in the U.S. until 2050 at the soonest.
In July, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission received notice of a plan from the Spent Fuel Reprocessing Group (SFRG) for a new interim disposal site for high-level nuclear waste from S.C. nuclear power plants. In the proposal, the SFRG said that there is “the need to consolidate (spent nuclear fuel) for economy and security and to lessen the burden on operating nuclear power plants in South Carolina.”
The plan calls for temporarily storing the spent fuel until it can be reprocessed for use in nuclear power reactors. Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel has been controversial in the U.S. Supporters say that it can be carried out safely and effectively. Critics say that it would create yet more radioactive waste to add to the growing waste storage problem in the U.S. If the spent fuel at the new facility is not reprocessed, then it will have to eventually be moved to a permanent facility. This would increase the risk of dealing with this waste.
Licensing of such a facility can take more than three years but if it is eventually approved, it will certainly draw strong opposition. Many citizens of S.C. feel that S.C. has already taken in a lot more than their fair share of radioactive waste in the U.S. S.C. environmental groups have already said that they are preparing to oppose any attempt to make S.C. into a "atomic waste dumping ground." In addition, Nikki Haley, the Governor of S.C., has concerns about the project. Her office issued the following statement: “South Carolina will not become a permanent dumping ground for nuclear waste regardless of where it would be housed or who would house it.”
Duke Energy operates three of the four nuclear power plants in S.C. Duke has denied any knowledge of the plan and declined to comment. As has South Carolina Electric & Gas is building two new nuclear reactors at its Fairfield County power plant in S.C. They would not respond to requests for their reaction to the SFRG plan. This is an odd situation. The new storage facility would be built to take spent nuclear fuel from S.C. nuclear power plants but the group planning the facility has apparently not discussed this facility with the companies who would need its services.
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