A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee plans a hearing next week on spent fuel management for the U.S. nuclear power plants.
The hearing, dubbed “American Nuclear Energy Expansion: Spent Fuel Policy and Innovation,” is set for Wednesday April 10 at 10:30 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, according to a press release.
The session was announced Wednesday by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Energy, Climate, and Grid Security subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.).
Ensuring the federal government fulfills its obligation to provide a disposal path for spent nuclear fuel will be an issue covered at the hearing, according to the release.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm recently confirmed during a fiscal 2025 budget hearing the Department of Energy won’t seek to revive a deep geological repository, such as Yucca Mountain, in Nevada. The agency is instead pursuing its much-touted consent-based siting plan for an interim storage facility, though Congress must still authorize the agency to build it.
DOE is close to starting conceptual design work on an interim storage facility, a senior DOE official said at an industry conference in early March.
“We look forward to hearing from experts about the opportunities to enhance long-term spent fuel policy and prospects for innovation in spent fuel management to cement American leadership in nuclear energy,” McMorris Rogers and Duncan said in the press release.
A witness list for the hearing was not immediately available on the committee website. The hearing will be live streamed online.
