Names of personnel responsible for the Department of Energy’s consent-based siting initiative for a consolidated interim storage facility of spent nuclear fuel emerged yesterday, almost six months after Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced DOE would be taking a more active role in finding a host community. Andrew Griffith, associate deputy assistant secretary of fuel technologies, has been leading the Department’s efforts for consent-based siting over both the federal and contractor workforce under a project entitled “Nuclear Fuel Storage and Transportation Project.” Melissa Bates is leading the federal side of the project, and Mark Nutt is leading the National Laboratory effort. Under their leadership, Mark Neim, on the federal side, and Rob Howard, on the National Laboratory side, are responsible for the consent-based portion of the project.
While personnel have already been in place since Moniz’s March announcement, DOE has not made any official announcements about its consent-based siting workforce. “Mike Reim is one of several members of federal employees and contractors that comprise a team of people working on consent based siting in the office of nuclear energy,” a DOE spokesperson said in an email yesterday. “The team is actively developing plans and performing technical analysis of various components of an integrated waste management system, as well as evaluating the Department’s next steps in the consent-based siting process. These activities are consistent with the Department’s laying the groundwork for implementing interim storage and transportation for commercial used nuclear fuel consistent with the Administration’s Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste.”
