The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) has recommended Congress and the Department of Energy (DOE) formally start planning for a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste.
The Technical Review Board said it is seeking a “workable pathway” to site, license, build and operate the facility for spent fuel and high-level waste, but is not recommending how to go about this.
NWTRB chair Peter Swift outlined in the March 18 letter to Congressional leaders and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright that the board believed that the United States was in need of one or more deep geologic repositories for permanent disposal.
During his first term, President Barack Obama shut down plans to use Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a deep geologic repository site for high-level radioactive waste. President Joe Biden’s administration stressed what is called “consent-based siting” for both interim storage and permanent disposal of nuclear waste from reactors.
Based on the board’s research, it said that as of December 2024, the DOE does not have an efficient repository program to address the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. In the attachment to the letter, the board stated that the DOE’s program activities were more conceptual as opposed to action-oriented.
The second conclusion the NWTRB came to in the letter was that a lack of an efficient repository program could bring a high-risk to its current efforts to site one or more federal interim storage sites. As stated in the letter, several government officials have shared their concerns about an interim storage facility.
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is an independent federal agency in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government charged with providing expert analysis to DOE on nuclear projects. Earlier this year, the Donald Trump administration sought the resignations of most of the board members, who were appointed by Biden.
