The department on Wednesday plans to post a notice in the Federal Register that public input is being accepted on “important considerations in designing a fair and effective siting process,” according to a statement from Andrew Richards, chief of staff for the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. In addition, “the Department plans to host a series of public meetings around the country in 2016 to hear from the public and stakeholders on important principles, values, and considerations that should guide our thinking as we begin designing a consent-based siting process,” Richards stated.
The new direction was initiated after the Obama administration in 2011 stopped development of the underground repository below Yucca Mountain in Nevada. That was followed by a study by the Blue Ribbon Commission for America’s Nuclear Future in 2012 that emphasized the consent-based strategy – essentially finding locations where the local stakeholders would accept the waste storage site. In 2013 the administration issued an official strategy for management and disposal of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Finally, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in March of this year said the department would plan a facility for defense waste that would be separate from storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.
Waste management specialists have already expressed interest in establishing interim sites in New Mexico and Texas. First, though, will come a pilot interim site that would largely hold spent fuel from shuttered nuclear reactors, Lynn Orr, DOE undersecretary for science and energy, said in a blog post on the department website. That would be followed by the interim site with greater capabilities, potentially including packaging waste for long-term storage. The final step in the years-long process would be one or more permanent repositories.“
Full implementation of this strategy will take time,” Orr stated. “Today’s action brings us a step closer to that goal, and the Department of Energy is seeking the help of all Americans to develop a fair and effective approach to consent-based siting.”