HENDERSON, Nev. – Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal on Wednesday said there is value in “parallel paths” for management of the nation’s nuclear waste, encompassing consolidated storage and a permanent repository.
Speaking at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit, Baranwal said she last week walked 5 miles through the planned underground disposal site at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
“It is an absolute treasure. And I hope that in my position now I can at least contribute input as we move forward in licensing,” Baranwal said during a panel discussion on consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel.
Baranwal said that, in the continued absence of a repository, interim storage is an option for consideration as the Department of Energy looks meet its legal mandate to remove spent fuel from nuclear power plants. “Even if we do get funding for Yucca it’s still a smart pathway to keep parallel efforts,” she said.
The United States today holds a stockpile of about 80,000 metric tons of spent fuel, stored on-site at nuclear plants in more than 30 states. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act gave DOE until Jan. 31, 1998, to begin taking that material for disposal, then was amended five years later to designate Yucca Mountain as the end point.
The Energy Department under President George W. Bush filed its license application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008, but the Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later. Congress so far has resisted multiple requests from the Trump administration to appropriate money to resume licensing. Meanwhile, two corporate teams are seeking federal licenses for temporary spent fuel storage sites in Texas and New Mexico that could centralize the material until a repository is ready.
Baranwal in July was sworn in as the new head of DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy after more than a decade in industry and three years as director of DOE’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program.
While the Office of Nuclear Energy focuses on sustaining the nation’s current nuclear power fleet and promoting new nuclear technologies, it would theoretically be in charge of managing DOE’s license application for Yucca Mountain.
The House in June passed legislation that would in fiscal 2020 provide nearly $50 million for “integrated” management of nuclear waste, with about half of that for transportation planning and other steps to advance interim storage. The Senate has yet to issue any spending bills for the budget year that begins Oct. 1, though action is expected quickly once Congress returns Monday from its summer recess.
Baranwal also reaffirmed her previously stated belief that it is worth reconsidering reprocessing of used fuel. Spent nuclear fuel can retain up to 95% of the original energy in its fissile uranium, but reprocessing has had minimal commercial success in the United States and has been dormant for decades.
“We have this precious asset that is barely used, in my opinion, and then we have another whole set of reactor class, advanced reactors, some of them are looking to use used fuel as their base fuel,” Baranwal said.
