The Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy should soon formally kick off market research for a consolidation interim storage facility for spent fuel, the head of that program, said Friday at RadWaste Summit.
“We have been working on an RFI -slash-RFP,” DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal said, referring to a request for information or request for proposals. “I hope to have it hit the streets in the very near future.”
“My team has developed that. It is still in the building but I hope to have good news to share with you soon,” Rita Baranwal said during the virtual conference.
The market research by DOE is likely to look at issues ranging from design to siting of a consolidated interim storage facility in a willing host community, Baranwal said. She did not provide further details.
Baranwal was responding to a question from moderator Eric Knox, vice president of strategic development for nuclear and environmental issues at Amentum, a major Energy Department contractor. Knox asked if there were any “quiet communications” currently taking place on formal proposals for consolidated interim storage facilities.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been studying two proposals for interim storage put forward by private concerns in Texas and New Mexico. The Energy Department is in charge addressing spent fuel from nuclear power plants in the United States. But such waste currently has no place to go with, the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada appearing to be dead in the water.
