The Department of Energy invited the public to attend the kickoff of the agency’s Consent Based Siting Consortia, the group among which the agency split $26 million in federal funding to help define what it means to consent to the storage of spent nuclear fuel.
The 13 consortia members were set to be online for the three-hour online session July 25. Anyone interested in attending can register on DOE’s website.
Yucca Mountain, the only congressionally authorized, permanent disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel in the U.S., is effectively dead because of political pressure from the crucial swing state of Nevada. DOE cannot legally build an interim storage site until it builds a permanent storage site.
In the meantime, the agency is attempting to make progress on the margins on collecting and disposing of spent nuclear fuel stranded at U.S. power plants.