ML18338A612
| ML18338A612 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Consolidated Interim Storage Facility |
| Issue date: | 11/06/2018 |
| From: | Public Commenter Public Commenter |
| To: | NRC/NMSS/FCSS |
| NRC/NMSS/FCSS | |
| References | |
| 83FR44922 | |
| Download: ML18338A612 (3) | |
Text
1 WCS_CISFEISCEm Resource From:
rjerdlac@att.net Sent:
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 4:04 PM To:
WCS_CISFEIS Resource
Subject:
[External_Sender] Docket ID: NRC-2016-0231
Dear Sirs/Madams:
The establishment of a safe long-term repository for spent high-level nuclear material is, of necessity, important for the future. The most ideal location for such a site is at an underground facility with geologic formations that have been and are believed to be stable for the next several thousands of years. An example of this type of site would be WIPP, located in thick salt beds underground. As a PhD student in the 1980s, I worked on a project at the Texas BEG that was looking at the same salt formation in Deaf Smith County as a location for a high level repository. Unfortunately the project was not completed due to Congress making the decree that Yucca Mountain be the only site for investigation, a site that has since been shown to not be the best from a geologic perspective. The idea of using the existing Andrews surface site as a repository for this high-level material flies in the face of common sense due to the potential hazards involved with transport and especially surface storage.
While many people have probably mentioned the health hazards and potential for sabotage, I would like to remind the NRC that this area of western Texas, the Permian Basin, has been and continues to be the single most important basin in the United States for oil and gas production. This basin produces hydrocarbons from at least 30 multiply stacked pay zones, more than usually found in oil and gas basins. The expanding efforts in shale production only add to the importance of the region. Andrews County sits well within the basin with important oil and gas production. Over the years there have been a number of significant train derailments through the Midland-Odessa area. And with both of these towns having a joint population near 500,000 due to oil industry employment, a derailment involving high-level radioactive material could easily shut down both of these oil and gas centers permanently, making large areas of the region impossible for production due to surface contamination, crippling future production in the Permian Basin that would have a disastrous impact on US oil and gas production, driving the cost of these resources to very high amounts, and negatively impacting the nations economic status.
Due to many reasons, some of them listed above, I oppose the WCS Consolidated Interim Spent Fuel storage Facility Project in Andrews County, Texas. The NRC needs to seriously rethink plans to approve a surface facility for storage of high-level radioactive waste, a site that is in the nations single most important oil and gas basin that still produces a high percentage of domestic reserves.
Dr. Richard J. Erdlac, Jr.
Principal Consultant (Former Chair of EMD-AAPG Geothermal Committee)
Erdlac Energy Consulting 4900 Thomason Drive, Midland, TX 79703 d: +1.432.699-5288 l c: +1-432.599.2753 e: rjerdlac@att.net
Federal Register Notice:
83FR44922 Comment Number:
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