The Department of Energy is “in some ways threading the needle of what needs to be done, and what can be done in policy space” in its work preparing to operate a pilot spent fuel storage site by 2021 per the Obama Administration’s January strategy, John Wagner, national technical director with DOE’s nuclear fuel storage and transportation group, said at the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council’s meeting to discuss the proposed project yesterday. Caught between the Administration and Senate urging they move ahead on interim storage and choosing another site for a spent fuel repository, and the House seeking to enforce restraints on just such work outlined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, DOE told industry leaders yesterday it is treading carefully in preparing for whatever nuclear waste management strategy the country may decide on. “We have to have legislation, legislation is essential,” Jeff Williams, director of DOE’s nuclear fuel storage and transportation planning project, said yesterday. “But we are continuing with technical evaluations. We’ve been developing a project plan. … [But] you start to come across some sensitivity things, even saying you’re doing these things.”
A bipartisan group of Senators led by Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has been working to draft nuclear waste legislation, and Chris Hanson, senior policy advisor for DOE, said at the conference yesterday that he believes a final version of that bill may be introduced this week. “New legislation is really necessary, to lift the NWPA restriction on interim storage, to make needed funds available and to establish a new organization,” Hanson said. “Certainly DOE and the administration welcomes and appreciates the work the Senators and their staffs have done working through difficult issues. [Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz] has been engaged with the Senators, and hopefully we’ll get good news this week.”
But until Congress alters or replaces the NWPA, the Department is severely curtailed in work it can do on interim storage, specific sites for possible new repositories, or even work with states or regions who hope to host such facilities. Hanson said Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at DOE Pete Lyons “has said he is nervous about doing anything site-specific, but in facilitating education programs. … We are doing some of that but perhaps not at the level that some folks would like.” Williams added: “We’ve got a Senate draft bill that came out in support of the Blue Ribbon Commission recommendations. However, we have a House that doesn’t support any of them. They say we’re breaking the law. They say that Yucca Mountain is the law of the land. If you look at the House mark-up last week or so, you’ll see the situation we’re trying to work with.”
