The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), an independent judicial arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has ruled that the Private Fuel Storage (PFS) consortium is financially qualified to construct, operate and decommission its proposed interim spent fuel storage facility in Utah. Earlier, the ASLB had ruled that the proposed storage facility meets the NRC's seismic standards.
Although the ASLB's rulings on the financial issues are favourable to PFS, they do not permit a facility licence, as a decision in March 2003 by another licensing board found that the probability of an accidental crash stemming from nearby military aircraft operations was too high. Now PFS and NRC technical staff have sought a review of the March ruling.
