An advocacy organization for communities that hosts nuclear cleanup sites on Tuesday lauded the “various advantages” of the Energy Department’s proposed repository for defense-related nuclear waste.
In an an email, Seth Kirshenberg, executive director of the Energy Communities Alliance, reiterated a position the Washington-based organization staked out years ago: that DOE should “move forward with addressing [high-level waste] disposal as quickly as possible.”
Kirshenberg echoed DOE’s comments that lower thermal and radiation levels make it easier to plan for a defense-only repository than a dual-use, commercial-military waste disposal center such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Obama administration canceled the Yucca project in favor of separate repositories for commercial and defense waste. It formally began the “consent-based” siting process for spent fuel and high-level waste storage in late 2015, anticipating a pilot facility, followed by interim and ultimately permanent sites.
Moreover, Kirshenberg said, “[w]ith the new [Donald Trump] administration we expect that both interim storage sites and Yucca Mountain will move forward, and we will wait to see whether they want to follow this path.”
Meanwhile, the Energy Department reiterated its stance that it does not need congressional action — other than the annual budget approval that any project needs — to build its planned Defense Waste Repository.
“DOE believes it has all the authorities it needs to build the DWR,” an agency spokesman in Washington said by email Tuesday. “As for an appropriation, DOE issued its draft plan to share its thoughts on next steps and we look forward to the comments we receive. Additionally, we will await further direction from the new Administration.”
