WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Energy needs to figure out a waste management strategy before pushing for more nuclear power, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told DOE officials in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last week.
“I can’t stress this enough; this to me is the issue we deal with first: how we address the waste,” Cortez Masto said during the March 19 hearing. “So we don’t end up where we are today with an old policy from the 80s, and we’re still addressing the waste in this country.”
The hearing focused on President Donald Trump’s May 23, 2025 nuclear-related executive orders and how DOE has been implementing them so far. DOE Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish, DOE Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner and Kairos Power CEO Mike Laufer testified.
Garrish and Wagner told the Nevada lawmaker that Trump’s executive orders seek to address spent nuclear fuel in various ways. Garrish said as part of recommendations DOE sent to the White House, the energy agency will pursue states interested in addressing waste through nuclear lifecycle hubs.
The hubs initiative, released Jan. 28, seeks to consolidate functions of the nuclear fuel cycle, such as uranium conversion, enrichment and fuel recycling in central locations. Garrish said fuel recycling is a prominent part of the administration’s spent fuel strategy.
During the hearing, Garrish said 24 states have gotten back to DOE about the state hubs, with 12 to 15 states that were very serious about their inquiries. Responses to the request for information are due April 1.
Nevada, the state Cortez Masto represents, state officials told the Exchange Monitor that it has no interest in pursuing DOE’s campuses. Garrish told Cortez Masto that the Trump administration still has no intentions of pursuing a waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
In Executive Order 14302, Trump directed DOE to provide recommendations to the White House on management of spent fuel and high-level waste. The recommendations also sought to deploy advanced nuclear fuel capabilities.
With DOE moving forward with its nuclear lifecycle hubs, Wagner said that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act should be updated. According to Wagner, the concept of a lifecycle campus dedicated to nuclear fuel capabilities is not consistent with the NWPA.
A key component where the NWPA and the recent solicitation differ is that there is no policy incentive for fuel recycling in NWPA. States responses’ to the RFI will help DOE shape how it will approach updating the policy, Wagner said.