THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140427
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SURRY LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
What happens when nuclear power plants run out of space to store the tons of highly radioactive wastes they produce each year?
Hot with uranium, these spent nuclear fuel rods for years were kept underwater in large indoor pools. But the pools are filling up - in South Carolina, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and at the North Anna nuclear power plant in central Virginia.
Until Congress and the Department of Energy agree on an answer - and that could take years - perhaps the best temporary solution can be seen here in remote Surry County, at Virginia Power's Surry Nuclear Power Station.
Down a dirt road, past TV monitors and motion detectors, and behind two lines of locked wire fence, spent fuel rods sit idly in storage in 16-foot-tall steel casks that look like giant thermoses or bad modern art.
Virginia Power has just finished building a second concrete slab where another 28 casks, each costing about $1 million, will be secured until the U.S. government decides on a waste policy for the nation's 73 commercial reactors.
Shirley Ann Jackson, appointed last year by President Clinton to chair the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, toured Surry and its storage slabs Tuesday.
Jackson said she was impressed- although she stressed that the best solution is for the government to build a permanent repository for highly radioactive nuclear wastes.
The government has been trying to do just that for 13 years. It has spent more than $4.5 billion on exploratory studies and preparations for a repository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. The project, however, is stalled over money, environmental concerns and political opposition.
``Clarity on this issue needs to come soon,'' said Jackson, a theoretical physicist from Rutgers University. ``This issue is a national concern, and has to be addressed.''
In 1986, Surry became the first nuclear plant to try dry storage in casks. That initial collection of canisters is full and the yard closed.
Virginia Power will start piling containers crammed with long, thin fuel rods in the second yard this spring, and the company has just applied to the NRC for approval to construct an identical facility at its North Anna plant, said spokesman James Norvelle. Other utilities across the country are following suit.
Jackson also met privately with president and CEO James T. Rhodes and other Virginia Power executives during her daylong visit.
Afterward, Jackson said she is not worried that a planned corporate restructuring of Virginia Power, including a reduction in jobs and overhead costs, will compromise safety at its two nuclear plants.
``Safety and good economics are not mutually exclusive here,'' Jackson said, while conceding she was not ``fully aware'' of all restructuring plans affecting North Anna and Surry.
Jackson was coy on the sensitive issue of the nuclear waste fund program, in which utilities charge customers for money that is supposed to help pay for a permanent repository.
The State Corporation Commission has opened an inquiry into whether Virginia should quit the fund, given that more than $9 billion has been collected nationally since 1982, yet a permanent waste site remains a mirage. An SCC report is expected to be released later this month, Norvelle said.
``Our job is ensuring safety,'' Jackson said when asked about the controversy. ``The (political) concerns I'll leave to others in Washington.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
VICKI CRONIS
The Virginian-Pilot
Shirley Ann Jackson, above left, the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, on Tuesday tours the storage slabs at Virginia Power's
Surry Nuclear Power Station. The 16-foot-tall steel casks house
spent fuel rods. To her left is James P. O'Hanlon Sr., a Virginia
Power vice president.
by CNB