The Department of Energy is planning to continue this year a legally-mandated working group aimed at developing incentives for communities impacted by spent nuclear fuel transportation efforts, the agency told the government’s independent nuclear waste technical committee in a recent letter.
DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy plans to resume operation of its Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation (NFST) stakeholder working group “to continue collaborations with State and Tribal governments and work toward a final Departmental policy for how DOE will provide funds to States and Tribes” through which spent nuclear fuel may eventually be shipped, the agency told the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) in a letter dated June 8.
The NFST stakeholder group, which DOE has run since 2018, is intended to help fulfill a provision of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act that requires the agency to provide technical assistance and funding to states and indigenous communities through which spent nuclear fuel would travel on its way to a final repository or other nuclear waste storage facility.
DOE’s June letter came in response to an April 2021 report from NWTRB detailing the board’s suggestions for improving the operation of the agency’s spent fuel and waste management program. The nuclear waste agency has continued to provide additional recommendations since then, telling Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff in June that DOE should “significantly strengthen and improve” plans to foster community engagement in its ongoing efforts to site a federal interim storage facility.
Meanwhile, NWTRB chair Jean Bahr asked Huff in a July 6 letter for a “one-on-one” meeting to discuss the board’s recommendations.
DOE is currently in the process of reviewing responses to its November request for information on its interim storage inquiry. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told members of Congress in May that the agency would be offering a funding opportunity for interested host communities in the early fall.
