The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy should soon publish a report wrapping up community input on its interim storage inquiry, the White House’s pick to lead the office told Senators during a confirmation hearing Thursday.
A summary report on DOE’s recently-closed request for information (RFI) on its proposed consent-based siting process for a federal interim spent fuel storage facility is “forthcoming,” Kathryn Huff told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during her confirmation hearing Thursday. The comment period, during which the agency sought input on how it should go about siting interim storage, closed March 4.
Next up in DOE’s interim storage process is a funding opportunity for potential host communities to explore interim storage, Huff told the Senate panel. The agency hasn’t said much in the way of what such a funding opportunity would look like — acting spent fuel chief Kim Petry told Exchange Monitor last week that DOE was still in the “planning phase” of that effort.
To actually build a federal interim storage facility would require some congressional action, Huff has said. She told Exchange Monitor Thursday the feds could “stand up “a TVA-like authority” over nuclear waste, since DOE doesn’t currently have jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Huff told the Senate Thursday that the ongoing rollout of a roughly $6 billion civil nuclear credits program is a “very large lift” for the agency, in part due to an “aggressive” timeline set by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
DOE deputy assistant secretary for nuclear fuel and supply chain Andrew Griffith Feb. 28 floated a June timeline for when the first credits would go out to plant operators, but the agency has since walked those comments back, telling Exchange Monitor March 11 that June was a “best case scenario” estimate.
Huff also declined to comment to Exchange Monitor Thursday on allegations of “substantial irregularities” in NE’s hiring process for a senior spent fuel position made Feb. 2 by an unidentified DOE employee.
