The Joe Biden administration’s fiscal year 2022 budget request would shift $20 million in existing funding for the siting of a non-Yucca Mountain federal interim storage site into a different silo of DOE’s Nuclear Energy office, according to a recently published budget document.
The administration also wants to increase the program’s focus on so-called consent-based siting.
The Office of Nuclear Energy’s (ONE) detailed budget justification, live on the agency’s website as of Thursday morning, asks for an $20 million to develop an interim storage program that “employs consent-based siting to address the near-term requirements for storage of commercial used fuel.”
The money, and the eight full-time positions it supports, would be put in the Integrated Waste Management System subprogram within ONE’s Fuel Cycle Research and Development program, according to the budget request.
The interim storage funding is currently book kept in the Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight account.
For the federal interim storage siting, ONE would work “collaboratively with the public, communities, stakeholders, and governments at the tribal, state, and local levels to lay the groundwork for effective implementation of consolidated interim storage for the nation’s nuclear waste,” the office’s latest budget justification said.
ONE’s Integrated Waste Management system subprogram would have a roughly $59 million budget overall, if the Biden administration’s request becomes law. Biden’s proposed budgetary feng shui would more than double the subprogram’s budget, compared with the 2021 appropriation. Net out the shuffling over of the federal interim storage funds and supporting personnel, and the Integrated Waste Management System request is flat, year over year.
As for the moribund Yucca Mountain geologic repository, the Biden administration appeared to back up its previous commitment not to fund further development. Funding for “physical security” of the Nye County, Nev. site is its only appearance in DOE’s $7.5 million request for Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight — a figure that’s decreased around 72% from $27.5 million in fiscal 2021.
