An independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) is a
place to safely store spent nuclear fuel while it is waiting for a geological
repository to permanently dispose of the material. The amount of nuclear fuel required to supply
a typical American citizen with a lifetime of energy would fill a single soda
can with waste. This means that for a
large power plant, it won't generate very much spent fuel at all for the amount
of energy it produces. Still, this spent
fuel must be handled safely and that over the long term.
One way this country has found to do that on the short term
is through allowing the construction and use of an ISFSI. Most nuclear power plants have a small one on
site or will be constructing a small one on site to safely store the spent fuel
until a geological repository can be licensed.
The reason a geological repository is needed is so that we can have a solution which was
agreed upon and recommended by the experts in the nuclear field. That solution being a federally licensed
geological repository.
The benefit of requiring such a license is that this means
the federal government will provide all the technical oversight and reviews to
verify that the facility would meet all the safety requirements called out
through many consensus based technical standards and similar criteria.
Right now, a licensed geological repository for spent fuel
does not exist. The Yucca Mountain
facility in southern Nevada is intended to eventually meet these requirements
to receive the spent fuel but the process for it obtaining a license is perhaps
tenuous at best. Some feel it will
eventually occur although anti nuclear activists are generally against it.
Without a licensed geological repository, there are spent
fuel storage casks which can hold the material for many decades without meaningful degradation. These storage casks are typically large
reinforced concrete cylindrical bunker like canisters which are designed to
safely hold the fuel for long periods of time.
The locations designed to hold these storage casks are ISFSI's which are
not meant to be a permanent solution to the spent fuel.
A more comprehensive solution has been determined through
consensus of many experts in the field that a single large scaled ISFSI is more
appropriate to handling the temporary storage of these spent fuel casks. In this way, a single security force,
facility design and operations crew can easily handle all the casks from the
fleet of reactors around the country. A
single large reactor will typically generate less than a dozen or so of these casks
over its lifetime and focusing a robust security and control plan into one
design has been considered to be the best overall solution. This allows improvements in safety, cost and efficiency
in general.
The Eddy-Lea energy alliance has been trying to obtain
funding to license and build such a facility in southeast New Mexico but
has met limited success. Similarly, Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County Texas is also seeking to obtain this scope of work from the nuclear industry. If Waste
Control Specialists (which is actually much closer to Eunice, NM than to Andrews, TX) is able to do this, it will be a very welcome
improvement to the nuclear industry.
