(The Associated Press distributed the following article on May 11.)
LAS VEGAS — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authorized new safety testing of a full-sized cask designed to carry spent nuclear fuel to a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
Agency officials said putting the 150-ton shipping container through a 75 mph crash and fully engulfing it in fire will confirm safety requirements for nuclear waste casks that so far have been based on scale model testing and computer calculations.
A disaster demonstration involving an 18-foot-long cask also might build public acceptance of a government campaign to transport 77,000 tons of nuclear waste and spent fuel to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, they said.
But the NRC plan, disclosed in a May 5 staff memo in Washington, D.C., drew criticism Monday from Nevada representatives.
“The staff requirements memo is completely unacceptable,” said Robert Halstead, a Nevada nuclear waste transportation consultant.
Test plan criticized
State officials have lobbied the nuclear safety agency to order more comprehensive tests. They said the planned testing falls short of fully measuring cask safety.
Government and industry officials say the safety of a 24-year Yucca Mountain shipping campaign will depend on the durability of the metal alloy casks containing highly radioactive fuel assemblies.
The state advocated full-scale testing of several truck cask designs, as well as casks to be carried by railroad to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
State officials also pushed for rigorous stress testing to determine cask breaking points.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff rejected the idea of “testing to failure,” saying there were no realistic accident scenarios that could cause a cask to rupture or leak.
Halstead said the state might ask Congress to intervene. He estimated cask testing will cost $35 million to $40 million, and said taxpayers will be shortchanged by testing that will not yield the most useful information.
A full-size rail cask could cost the government $1 million to $3 million, industry officials have said.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is drafting a bill to require the NRC to conduct physical tests to the failure point on full-scale models of any casks that would carry nuclear waste to the state by truck and by railroad, aides said Monday.