미 아이다호에 16억달러 규모 방폐장 건설 U.S. Navy Sets Plans to Upgrade Idaho Spent Fuel Facility

U.S. Navy Sets Plans to Upgrade Idaho Spent Fuel Facility

  미국 에너지부가 북부 아이다호 주에 16억5천만 달러를 들여 방사성 폐기물 처리 시설을 건설할 계획이라고 6일 발표했습니다.

에너지부 관리들은 이번에 새로 건설하는 시설이 해군 핵항공모함과 핵잠수함을 운영하는데 필요하다고 말했습니다.

에너지부는 성명에서 이는 해군의 작전을 위해 핵원자로의 연료 제거와 재장착을 지원하는데 필요한 기반시설이라고 밝혔습니다.

관리들은 또 새 시설의 경우 적어도 2060년까지 운영되며, 현행 시설로는 처리 할 수없는 폐연료봉을 처리할 것이라고 설명했습니다.

에너지부 측은 준비 작업은 내년에 시작되며 시설 공사는 2019년 부터 착수해 2024년께 준공될 것으로 전망했습니다.

VOA 뉴스

황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터

Ki Chul Hwang, conpaper editor

Posted on October 8, 2016 by djysrv

The Naval Reactors facility needs a new wet storage facility to cool off spent fuel from its nuclear propulsion program.

spent fuel train idahoThe Associated Press reported October 3 that the Navy and U.S. Department of Energy want to build a $1.6 billion facility at a nuclear site in eastern Idaho that would handle fuel waste from the nation’s fleet of nuclear-powered warships through at least 2060. (fact sheet)

According to the wire service, the new facility would be built at the Energy Department’s 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory, the nation’s primary lab for commercial nuclear energy research.

The Navy’s plan is sure to set off a significant response from anti-nuclear  groups and two ex-governors who have stridently opposed any new spent nuclear fuel, from any source, being brought to the state.

batt_and_andrus_nprFormer Governors Cecil Andrus, a democrat, and Phil Batt, a republican, (left) have maintained that absent significant progress in stabilizing and removing nearly a million gallons of highly radioactive liquid radioactive waste at the Idaho lab, no new spent nuclear fuel can be brought to the site.

(Image: NPR/Boise Public Radio)

Their opposition scuttled a plan by the R&D side of the house at the Idaho lab to conduct evaluations of small quantities of high-burnup fuel from commercial reactors. The project was transferred by the Department of Energy to the Oak Ridge lab.

The latest plan announced by the U.S. Navy could re-energize their opposition and possibly put at risk an unrelated effort to build a first of a kind small modular reactor for commercial generation of electricity at the Idaho lab in the 2023 or later.

History of Navy Spent Fuel in Idaho

The Navy has been bringing spent nuclear fuel from its ships and submarines to Idaho via rail since the early days of the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. The liquid radioactive waste that is sitting in underground tanks on the Arco desert is residual material from the reprocessing of the naval fuel which took place there until President Carter cancelled the program as a nonproliferation measure.

Some of the facilities at the Naval Reactors site date back to the the Cold War era which is one reason why the government thinks that an upgrade is in order. The State of Idaho, which wants all of the spent fuel gone from the site by 2035, seemed to recognize that business as usual is the more likely scenario. A spokesman for the lab told the the AP;

“We would prefer to see a state-of-the-art facility if they’re going to continue to bring in spent fuel,” said Susan Burke, Idaho National Laboratory oversight coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

According to the AP report, a document approving the plan could be issued early next month. Officials say site preparation would likely begin in 2017, with the facility becoming operational in the early 2020s.

“The facility would be designed with the flexibility to integrate future identified mission needs,” the environmental impact statement says. It also notes that the new facility would be upgraded to meet new seismic standards.

Idaho Earthquake Risk

On October 28, 1983, the Borah Peak earthquake measured 6.9 on the event magnitude scale making it a violent seismic event. Earthquake numbers are logarithmic which means each tick on the right side of the decimal means a 10 fold increase in seismic intensity.

The U.S. Geological Survey notes that the Borah Peak earthquake is the largest ever recorded in Idaho – both in terms of magnitude and in amount of property damage.

The Challis-Mackay region experienced significant damage, with 11 commercial buildings and 39 homes with major damage; while another 200 houses were damaged, minor to moderately.

Mackay in particular, about 50 miles west of the Idaho lab site, experienced the most severe damage. Most of the city’s large buildings on its Main Street were damaged and some had to be demolished.

Path Forward for Navy Spent Fuel

Another reason that a new building at the Naval Reactors site is needed to handle a new type of spent-fuel shipping container. The container requires a larger pool with a different configuration to place the spent fuel in wet storage until it cools off enough to be moved to dry casks.

The new facility will take spent fuel from ships, move it to wet storage at the Idaho site, and when it is cool enough, place it in dry casks for shipment to an interim storage or permanent geologic disposal site.

https://neutronbytes.com/2016/10/08/u-s-navy-sets-plans-to-upgrade-idaho-spent-fuel-facility

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