NRC Resumes Review of Application for Texas Consolidated Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has resumed its safety and environmental reviews of an
application by Interim Storage Partners to construct and operate a consolidated spent nuclear fuel
storage facility in Andrews County, Texas.

The application was initially filed by Waste Control Specialists in 2016. The company
requested the NRC suspend its review in April 2017, pending the anticipated sale of the company.
WCS was sold to J.F. Lehman & Co., in January 2018. In March, WCS and Orano, an international
nuclear supplier, formed Interim Storage Partners as a joint venture to take over the spent fuel storage
project. The new company submitted a revised application to the NRC in June.

When NRC’s review was suspended last year, the staff was in the process of receiving public
comment on the scope of its environmental review and had issued a notice of opportunity for an
adjudicatory hearing. Those processes will now resume.

The staff will consider all comments previously received on the scope of the environmental
review. In a notice published Sept. 4 in the Federal Register, the NRC requested additional public
comment through Oct. 19 on environmental issues to be considered in its environmental impact
statement. In a separate notice in the Federal Register, published Aug. 29 and corrected Aug. 31, the
NRC announced an opportunity to request a hearing, through Oct. 29. The notices include detailed
instructions on how to file a hearing request or submit public comment.

The NRC completed its administrative review of the revised application and informed Interim
Storage Partners of its decision to resume the review in a letter dated Aug. 21, 2018. The staff expects
to complete its safety, security and environmental reviews in the summer of 2020.