Congress needs to make some changes to federal law before the Department of Energy can tackle the spent fuel storage problem, congressional investigators said this week.
“Congress needs to take action to break the impasse over a permanent solution for commercial spent nuclear fuel—used fuel removed from nuclear power reactors,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report published Thursday.
The oversight board interviewed 20 nuclear experts and 25 stakeholders to develop its recommendations, the report said.
Among GAO’s recommendations, the organization said that Congress should amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) to “authorize a new consent-based process for siting, developing, and constructing” interim and permanent storage facilities for spent fuel. Congress should also develop a review board or some other politically-independent organization to oversee spent fuel disposal, GAO said.
The Nuclear Waste Fund also needs an update, the report said. GAO recommended that Congress restructure the Fund so that cash used to develop a permanent repository reflects the “life cycle costs” of commercial spent fuel storage programs.
There are two commercial interim storage facilities currently under federal review: Interim Storage Partners’ site in west Texas, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed Sep. 14; and Holtec International’s counterpart site in southeastern New Mexico, a licensing decision for which should arrive in January, NRC has said.
GAO also recommended Thursday that the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (ONE) “engage the public and finalize its draft consent-based siting process.” Acting ONE assistant secretary Kathryn Huff told GAO in a Sep. 10 letter that her office was “resuming consent-based siting activities” and that an update to ONE’s guidance for the process would come down in early 2022.
Appropriations bills for 2022, currently stalled in Congress, include about $20 million in federal funding for ONE’s interim storage inquiry: roughly even with the Joe Biden administration’s request.
