A short drive north of Denver, tucked near Platteville, Colorado, is already babysitting about 33,069 pounds of spent reactor fuel. The roughly 15 metric tons of nuclear leftovers from the state’s only commercial reactor sit in a reinforced concrete vault at the old Fort St. Vrain power plant, where they have remained under federal supervision since the reactor stopped generating electricity in 1989. For nearby communities, the nuclear debate is not an abstract policy argument; the waste is already here, on a schedule, and under a microscope.
As reported by The Colorado Sun, the on-site storage installation that holds the Fort St. Vrain fuel elements sits about four miles east of Interstate 25, not far from the Platteville community center. In the 1980s, some fuel was shipped to Idaho, but roughly 15 metric tons remained in Colorado after political pushback halted additional transfers. That remaining inventory, 33,069 pounds of spent fuel, is now Exhibit A in the fight between supporters and critics of expanding nuclear power in the state.
What the vault contains
The Fort St. Vrain Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation is essentially a massive concrete strongbox: about 143 feet long, 72 feet wide, and 80 feet high. Inside are six vaults and 244 loaded fuel-storage containers holding roughly 1,464 fuel elements. According to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, the facility was purpose-built for Fort St. Vrain’s graphite-and-thorium fuel. It was designed to store about 1,482 fuel elements using passive air cooling and thick concrete shielding rather than complex active systems.
The board’s materials describe fuel elements that are roughly 31 inches tall and 14 inches across, slotted into straightforward but sturdy storage holes. A crane system handles the heavy lifting inside the vault, reinforcing the point that the setup is more about brute-force durability than high-tech theatrics.
Who oversees the site and the ticking clock
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission keeps tabs on the installation. In an April 2024 inspection documented by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency reported that the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation was in good condition and operating within the terms of its license. The Department of Energy took over responsibility for the spent fuel in 1999, when the NRC license for the facility was formally transferred to DOE…