Thomas Gardiner
Former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on Wednesday endorsed consolidated-interim and consent-based storage for U.S. nuclear waste while the federal government pursues a permanent repository.
“I think we’ve got to reach point where questions of moving fuel away to consolidated storage can’t be held hostage to a lack of progress getting a geological repository open,” Moniz said at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Discussing the need for a “robust nuclear power sector,” Moniz said the leading challenge facing the U.S. commercial nuclear energy industry is determining what to do with the more than 75,000 metric tons, and growing, of spent fuel stored on-site at power plants around the country.
The Obama administration in 2010 canceled work on the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, subsequently initiating a multistage storage process that would include consolidating spent fuel at a limited number of locations and securing local assent for all storage facilities.
The Trump administration is seeking $150 million in funding to revive the licensing process for Yucca Mountain. Its position on “consent-based siting” remains unclear: the Energy Department web page on the program has at least since June been largely blank, except for a brief message saying it is being “updated to reflect the Department’s priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Perry.”
“We need consent-based siting. The idea that it takes a lot longer than non-consent based is challenged by the facts,” Moniz said.
Congress in 1987 designated Yucca Mountain as the permanent U.S. repository for defense and commercial nuclear waste. Progress since then has been halting, and the battle over the site remains intense.
Moniz said using a consolidated interim storage strategy would help alleviate challenges while the federal government works to reinvigorate the Yucca Mountain facility or find a new repository.
