Vermont’s citizen-led nuclear waste advisory committee would support “immediate action” by the federal government to site an interim storage facility for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, if a draft opinion presented to the committee is finalized.
The draft opinion included alongside a Dec. 6 meeting of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens’ Advisory Panel (NDCAP) proposed support for “informed consent-based siting for any proposed deep geologic and/or consolidated interim storage nuclear waste facilities.”
The advisory board also could recommend that Congress amend the Atomic Energy Act “to restore imposition of normal environmental regulations for nuclear storage facilities in order to facilitate public trust in the consent-based siting process,” the draft comments said.
The draft response preceded DOE’s November request for information (RFI) concerning about finding an acceptable spot for a federally owned interim storage site. The agency invited feedback from communities and stakeholders on how to apply a consent-based approach to the interim storage process. According to DOE, comments on the RFI are due March 4.
NDCAP didn’t debate or vote on the proposed opinion during the Dec. 6 meeting. Lisa Weinmann, chair of NDCAP’s federal nuclear waste policy subcommittee, said during the meeting that the committee would have to meet again prior to the March deadline to decide whether to formally submit its draft comments, according to meeting minutes. NDCAP’s next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 10.
Vermont is home to the former Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, currently under decommissioning by NorthStar. The company has said that it could finish dismantling the Vernon, Vt., plant by 2026 or so. Vermont Yankee stores its 58-cask spent fuel inventory onsite at a dry storage pad.
Editor’s note, Jan. 13, 2022, 10:21 a.m. Eastern time. The story was corrected to show that the committee had not yet adopted the draft opinion.
