ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Department of Energy plans to draw up a draft design for its consent-based process for nuclear waste storage by the end of 2016, acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek said Wednesday.
The consent-based siting process is the Obama administration’s replacement for the canceled geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Kotek, who appeared at the DOE National Cleanup Workshop here, is leading public outreach for the process.
The consent-based siting draft, Kotek said, will include preliminary plans for a separate defense-only waste repository, which he believes “will help facilitate efforts to permanently dispose of the whole inventory of commercial fuel,” or about 74,000 metric tons of waste that is now stranded at nuclear reactor sites around the country. The siting process, as drawn up, envisions a pilot storage facility by 2021; one or more larger, interim facilities by 2025; and at least one permanent geologic repository by 2048.
“As we get out and working with states, local tribes, governments, and others on a consent-based siting process, we think ultimately putting out a plan that describes what we think the path forward for a defense repository would look like would help inform debates that are already going on within states within communities, within tribes, who might be interested in hosting a storage facility, repository, or both,” Kotek said.
DOE this year hosted a number of public meetings around the country to gather feedback on the consent-based siting process, and garnered more than 11,000 public comments. Today the department is hosting a meeting to discuss those findings, relaying what it believes were the most common themes included in the comments, and to discuss next steps in the process. The meeting is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Washington D.C. Convention Center, 900 10th St. N.W.
