News Release 5/27/03
Contact: Sue Martin
801-532-5322 or
801-209-3062
Licensing Board Rules on PFS
Financial Qualifications
SALT LAKE CITY (May 27, 2003)
- Today, Private Fuel Storage (PFS) received three favorable
rulings from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) concluding
that PFS is financially qualified to build, operate and decommission
the proposed temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
The rulings reflect the license conditions established by the
NRC Staff, which require PFS to show it has sufficient funds
committed for constructing the facility before commencing construction,
and customer contracts sufficient to cover the cost of operating
the facility before beginning operation.
The ASLB has only released the
decisions to the State of Utah, the NRC Staff and PFS, pending
a review to determine whether the rulings set forth any proprietary
or confidential information. Once that review is completed, the
Board will release the non-proprietary portions of the decisions
to the public.
"We are pleased the ASLB
has ruled in our favor on this issue," said John Parkyn,
PFS Chairman. "We are confident our facility will satisfy
a critical industry need for temporary storage. Therefore, I
have no doubt we will satisfy the NRC's financial conditions
year after year as long as the facility exists, and that we will
fully decommission as required."
The proposed temporary storage
facility is privately funded by the utilities that make up the
PFS consortium and by those utilities that choose to store spent
fuel there. Each time spent fuel is sent to the facility, the
utility that owns it will pay into an external decommissioning
fund that will be used to return the site to its original condition
when the spent fuel is sent to the federal repository and the
temporary facility is closed.
Today's ruling is the latest
in a series of ASLB decisions that address issues raised in hearings
by the state of Utah, Ohngo Gaudedah Devia, and the Southern
Utah Wilderness Alliance. One additional issue remains for the
ASLB to rule on - the wilderness characteristics of the proposed
rail line to the PFS site, an issue raised by the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance.
Private Fuel Storage is a consortium
of nuclear utility companies that pooled resources to license,
construct and operate a centralized temporary facility to store
spent nuclear fuel for up to 20-40 years, until the proposed
permanent federal repository at Yucca Mountain, NV, is ready
to accept the spent fuel stored at the facility. PFS signed a
lease with the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians in 1997 to
use 820 acres of its reservation for the 100-acre facility. In
June 1997, PFS submitted its application to the NRC.
The spent fuel is now stored
in pools or dry storage containers at each power plant, many
of which will run out of on-site storage capacity before Yucca
Mountain is completed. To keep their plants operating at levels
that meet growing electricity needs, the utilities must have
other interim storage options. In addition, many utilities are
currently spending millions each year to maintain storage pools
at plants that are no longer operating but cannot fully decommission
until they can move their spent fuel off site.
For further information about
the PFS facility and its history, visit www.privatefuelstorage.com.
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