Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week.
DOE publishes summary of interim storage comments
In a new report this week, the Department of Energy published its round-up of community input on the agency’s ongoing interim storage inquiry.
Among the 200 or so comments it received in its November request for information (RFI), DOE said in its Thursday report that many responses highlighted distrust in the federal government’s existing nuclear waste strategy as a “key challenge” to the agency’s interim storage siting efforts.
“DOE recognizes that a successful consent-based siting process for a federal consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will require strong and trusting relationships—built on a foundation of collaboration, two-way communication, information sharing, and accountability,” the agency said.
Commenters also expressed the need for an independent waste management organization, separate from DOE, to handle interim storage, the report said. Such an organization, which some agency leadership and members of Congress have already suggested, would be “better positioned to gain trust and provide the policy stability required to make progress.”
Now that the RFI responses have been reviewed, DOE has said that it plans to unveil a competitive funding opportunity for potential host communities to explore interim storage. Such an award could come in the early fall, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm has said.
Retiring coal sites could be used for new nuclear facilities, DOE says
A Department of Energy report published this week found that hundreds of former coal generation facilities could be converted into nuclear power plants, the agency said in a statement.
The DOE study, made public in a Tuesday press release, surveyed around 400 operating and retired coal generation sites and found that around 80%, or around 320, were “good candidates to host advanced reactors smaller than the gigawatt scale.”
According to the study, conducted at Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, replacing coal sites with nuclear generation could reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions, raise tax revenue and add new jobs, DOE said.
“This is an important opportunity to help communities around the country preserve jobs, increase tax revenue, and improve air quality,” Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff said in the press release. “As we move to a clean energy future, we need to deliver place-based solutions and ensure an equitable energy transition that does not leave communities behind.”
Swiss gov selects repository site
The government of Switzerland over the weekend selected a site near its border with Germany to host a nuclear waste repository, according to an Agence France-Presse report.
A spokesperson for Bern’s National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste said Saturday that an agency review determined that the Nördlich Lägern region along the country’s southern border is “the safest site for a deep geological repository.” The site is scheduled to begin accepting waste shipments in 2060.
Switzerland, which has five nuclear power plants, currently stores its waste at an interim facility less than ten miles from the German border.
Currently, only three other European countries have signaled their intent to build permanent repositories for spent nuclear fuel. Finland has already brought such a facility online — both Sweden and France have said that they would build one.
There is no centralized facility to store nuclear waste in the U.S. The only congressionally authorized site for such a task, Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, has been on ice since 2010 when the Barack Obama administration pulled its funding.
