Although details are sparse, funding to site a federal interim storage facility for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel would be included in the Department of Energy’s budget proposal for 2022 if it became law, according to the agency’s latest top-level budget summary.
The Office of Nuclear Energy’s (ONE) fuel cycle program should receive funding “for critical, foundational planning and development actions required to lay the groundwork for effective, environmentally-just implementation of consent-based siting for interim storage of the nation’s used nuclear fuel,” said DOE’s budget overview published last weekend.
Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nevada, remains the only congressionally authorized site for a permanent nuclear-waste repository. The Joe Biden administration has said it will not build a repository there.
The volume of the department’s budget justification that deals with nuclear waste in-depth hadn’t yet been published at deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor.
Parts of the Biden administration’s 2022 budget request were made available last Friday, including $890 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, $1.85 billion for ONE and a proposed cash injection for advanced nuclear research and development.
The administration also asked for $750 million in fiscal year 2022 to provide credits to the nation’s existing fleet of nuclear power plants.
