As federal officials look for ways to dispose of tens of thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel, the U.S. Department of Energy this week released an update of its search process to consider impacts on disadvantaged and “overburdened communities.”
DOE has been engaged in consent-based siting to engage with “willing communities” to host interim nuclear waste storage facilities and help reduce health and safety impacts on various communities. The agency developed and requested public comment on a draft consent-based siting process in January 2017.
Its recent update reflects public comment provided in response to a request for information in 2021.
Comments submitted “underscore the need to build trust between communities and DOE, ensure fairness in the stakeholder engagement process . . . acknowledge historical harms to disadvantaged communities and prevent any targeting of underserved and vulnerable communities going forward,” DOE said.
Justice and equity principles require “appropriate and meaningful inclusion” of diverse communities, stakeholders, states and Tribes in decisions that affect them, the agency said.
DOE’s consent-based siting process will be guided by several priorities: health and safety, environmental responsibility, regulatory requirements, relationships with Tribal nations, environmental justice, informed participation, equal treatment and full consideration of impacts, community well-being, the right to volunteer and withdraw and transparency.
Nuclear energy is key to achieving a goal of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by the end of the decade, 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, DOE said.
Since the 1950s, about 90,000 metric tons of heavy metal, or MTHM, of spent nuclear fuel have been generated from commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S., DOE said. The inventory grows by about 2,000 MTHM a year and is stored at more than 70 sites in more than 30 states where it is enclosed in steel-lined concrete pools of water or steel and concrete containers known as dry storage casks.
At the direction of Congress, DOE is looking to develop a federal consolidated interim storage capability for commercial sites for spent nuclear fuel and will use a consent-based siting process to identify suitable sites.
DOE said it’s separately developing siting considerations and screening criteria that will be published in the early phases of its consent-based siting process. In this revision, interested communities may develop additional, site-specific criteria early in the process.
In addition, DOE said funding opportunities, subject to annual congressional appropriations, are included in each phase of the siting process.
