WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy’s report on a national waste management plan is coming together, DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory senior policy advisor Bradley Williams said this week at the American Nuclear Society (ANS) conference.
Driven by President Donald Trump’s executive order “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base”, DOE, in conjunction with other agencies, is supposed to develop a strategy for management of spent fuel and high-level waste.
The 240-day report is due to the White House by January 2026.
Williams, one of the lead authors of the report, did not go into much detail on the document itself but said Monday that the report has been drafted and is being reviewed prior to publication.
Many of the recommendations DOE has received have had recurring themes, Williams said. The recommendations include the long-discussed establishment of an independent waste management organization and collaborative siting for disposal facilities.
Groups such as the Nuclear Energy Institute and ANS offered various recommendations, Williams said.
Assuming the United States meets the White House goal of quadrupling its nuclear generating capacity by 2050, Williams said the country might need the equivalent of 12 Yucca Mountain repositories. The calculation is based on current nuclear technologies, Williams said.
If the United States elected to revisit fuel reprocessing, then it would likely need one to two repositories, Williams said. Reprocessing would be necessary from a fuel availability and waste management standpoint, Williams added.
Among other things, the report calls for evaluating the feasibility of fuel recycling.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), was keen on the possibility of fuel reprocessing. Both Fleischmann and Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), in a recorded message, said during the panel that the country will need a repository even if fuel reprocessing started up again.