The Donald Trump administration is reportedly considering offering economic incentives for states to consider taking on nuclear waste, according to a Wednesday article from Politico.
The Trump administration intends to introduce a program soon addressing nuclear waste, Politico reported. Governors would receive incentives in exchange for hosting spent nuclear fuel.
The federal government is expected to issue a request for information laying out the details of what the federal government will do to assist states in taking on the storage of nuclear waste, according to the article.
The Department of Energy did not reply by Thursday afternoon to Exchange Monitor’s request for comment.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has put a lot of emphasis on nuclear power to support artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and growing energy demands. A looming question with the push has been what will be done with the spent nuclear fuel.
In the executive order “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base”, Trump ordered the secretary of energy, in coordination with several other agencies, to put together a report that includes a recommendation of a national policy for waste management and to evaluate the feasibility of fuel reprocessing.
The report is due this month.
Last week a panel of experts, led by a retired DOE executive and former NRC chair, issued their own report supporting establishment of a non-DOE entity to oversee nuclear waste.
Under the Joe Biden administration, DOE was pursuing a “consent-based siting” approach, but had not gone so far as to spell out what economic rewards that host communities might expect in return.
The administration hopes to create a vision where states volunteer that could become nuclear hubs that have storage and other supply chain capabilities.
Politico reported that one of the officials close to the planning said the administration intends to invest “billions, if not hundreds of billions” into nuclear energy infrastructure to support the expansion of domestic nuclear power, supply chain needs and research into fuel reprocessing.
One of the officials said that there are “obvious contenders” for states that positioned themselves as nuclear hubs, such as Tennessee with Oak Ridge and Utah, they said in the article.
The official said there is at least one other state that has already expressed privately but declined which one, Politico reported.