The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has just issued a request for information to help it develop a consent-based approach to siting an interim storage site for U.S. spent nuclear fuel. This announcement represents a re-start of the federal program following the cancellation of plans for a geological repository at Yucca Mountain in 2009.
Jennifer Granholm is the current U.S. Secretary of Energy. She said, “Hearing from and then working with communities interested in hosting one of these facilities is the best way to finally solve the nation's spent nuclear fuel management issues.”
The DoE issued the request for information on the 1st of December in the Federal Register. It was aimed at the completion of a draft siting process that has been under development since 2015. It encourages individuals and groups to supply input on a range of social issues related to the project. DoE noted that it is especially keen to hear from groups that have not been sufficiently represented in the past.
The DoE said, “Consent-based siting must be driven by communities and done in close collaboration with the public, interested groups, and governments at the tribal, state, and local levels. This request for information is a first step in that direction.”
Katie Huff is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. She said, “willing communities have the right to explore the benefits and conditions they need to host a federal interim storage facility.”
Granholm said, “We know there are real benefits from jobs to new infrastructure that will result in interest in areas across the country. The public's input is central to identifying those locations to make this process as inclusive and effective as possible.”
The DoE announcement represents the first tangible step in moving forward with spent nuclear fuel disposal since 2009 when President Obama cancelled funding for the Yucca Mountain repository project. The NRC terminated licensing activities for the repository in 2011. The request for information and draft siting process will be focused on interim storage and it does not invite comments on potential repository sites.
U.S. spent nuclear fuel is governed by the 1983 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. This Act gave the DoE responsibility to open a disposal site by 1998. It began collecting a Nuclear Waste Fund from utility contributions to pay for it. An amendment to the act in 1987 specified that Yucca Mountain was the sole disposal site.
No U.S. disposal site was ever been created and nuclear power plant operators had to make their own arrangements to store spent fuel. One solution was to set up dry storage casks to temporarily hold spent fuel. The DoE has been forced by court rulings to repay utilities costs from the Nuclear Waste Fund. It contains tens of billions of dollars restricted to use for spent fuel management only.
There is now a total of about eighty-six thousand tons of spent nuclear fuel stored at seventy-five operating or closed nuclear power plants in thirty-three states, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office.
Response to the request for information must be received by the 4th of March 2022.