The Department of Energy announced Wednesday a new program aiming to reduce the volume of spent nuclear fuel produced by advanced reactors, according to a press release.
The “Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems” (ONWARDS) program under DOE’s existing Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will get up to $40 million in funding from the department, the Wednesday press release said.
ONWARDS will address “challenges posed by the limited disposal options for spent nuclear fuel through the development of novel processes and applications at the start of a fuel cycle that prevents the formation of nuclear waste,” the press release said.
The program’s “proactive” research will aim for a tenfold reduction in advanced reactor waste volumes, the press release said. That goal will be accomplished through improvements in fuel recycling and sensor technologies as well as through the development of “high-performance waste forms” that remain safe and stable in storage, the release said.
As the federal government explores ways to manage advanced nuclear waste streams, it has yet to designate a permanent site to dispose of the around 90,000 tons of spent fuel currently stranded at existing nuclear power plants nationwide.
The Joe Biden administration has said it will not pursue a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and that instead it will begin work on a federal interim storage facility for spent fuel somewhere else. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said May 6 that the administration will unveil its strategy “in the coming months.”
