The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Community Engagement Panel will hold a joint hybrid meeting Thursday with nuclear industry experts to discuss recent developments in spent nuclear fuel recycling and disposal initiatives.
The meeting will be held at the Casino San Clemente, 140 Avenida Pico, San Clemente, Calif. and it will begin at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time. It can also be viewed on Microsoft Teams.
According to the SONGS Community Engagement Panel’s May 27 press release, the meeting will feature discussions centered around the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses and other programs to support advanced reactor deployment. DOE released a request for information for the nuclear hub on Jan. 28 to gauge state’s interest in hosting a campus that could include fuel reprocessing and waste disposal.
The campus could also include fuel fabrication, uranium enrichment, an advanced reactor and a co-located data center. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said 28 states responded to the energy agency’s solicitation.
Panelists that will be speaking at the meeting will be former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison MacFarlane, former DOE senior official Lake Barrett and former director of DOE’s Office of Policy Tom Isaacs. Both Isaacs and MacFarlane were members of Barack Obama’s Blue-Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.
In January, Barrett and MacFarlane published a study centered around the national waste management program, called “The Path Forward”, that offered recommendations for creating a single entity focused on managing the federal used fuel program.
The Spent Fuel Solutions coalition will also be at the meeting.