The federal government needs to figure out a spent nuclear fuel [SNF] management strategy for new reactors instead of leaving it for future generations to deal with, two authors said in a commentary piece this week.
Former Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy official during the Barack Obama administration Matt Bowen and research associate Rama Ponangi co-wrote a commentary Monday urging the government to revisit its current policy for nuclear waste management. The analysis appeared in a Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs publication.
The authors suggest Congress and the executive branch could create a single-purpose organization with immediate access to utility fees to implement the national spent nuclear fuel program. The idea of a single-purpose organization was also recommended by a group of nuclear experts in a study published in January.
“Inaction [on nuclear waste management] seems a bit contradictory if the government is pushing for new reactor deployment while offering potential reactor owners a worse deal when it comes to the SNF such reactors will produce,” Bowen and Ponangi said.
The current policy has taken shape over decades, the authors said.
DOE is obligated to handle the disposal of spent nuclear fuel under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. In 1983, the department published the original standard contract with the assumption the federal government would start waste disposal by 1998.
But a deep geologic repository never came to fruition and DOE has not fulfilled its duties to dispose of the waste, leading to over 90,000 metric tons of spent fuel typically stored near reactors across the country and DOE being frequently sued, the authors said. The Yucca Mountain site in Nevada, was abandoned by the Obama administration and never successfully resusitated.
DOE eventually began to use the amended version of the standard contract in the late 2000s. Bowen and Ponangi said two notable changes in the amended contract were a delayed date for DOE to take control of the spent nuclear fuel and limits to DOE liability.
In the amended contract, DOE is to complete acceptance of all nuclear waste generated by a new reactor within 10 years of expiration of the original Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating license or any license extension.
Bowen and Ponangi said this essentially means that DOE will not be responsible for that reactor’s waste for 70 years, since the original license is 40 years and the license extension is 20 years.
While the changes to the original standard contract were understandable in trying to mitigate federal liability, it also has given “little to no assurance” to states and utilities if DOE intends to fulfill its duties on managing spent nuclear fuel for new reactors, Bowen and Ponangi said.
The authors said these assurances play a role in enabling new nuclear reactor development. As nuclear power has gained bipartisan support over the years, Bowen and Ponangi said the back-end of the nuclear lifecycle must be addressed.