In an effort to promote proper management of nuclear waste, the Department of Energy recently issued a Request For Information inviting states to host “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.” In a new insight, Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Shuting Pomerleau provides an overview of the United States’ current approach to managing nuclear waste and key challenges moving forward.

Key points:

• The Trump Administration is pursuing a multi-pronged approach to manage nuclear waste, which includes investing in nuclear waste recycling technologies, funding research and development in nuclear waste management, and offering federal incentives for states to voluntarily host spent fuel disposal and storage activities.
• The federal government has long fallen behind in nuclear waste management, with a decades-long stalemate between the federal and state governments to establish a permanent storage facility; the federal government currently relies on 79 temporary sites to store over 95,000 metric tons of spent fuel, and the annual cost of payments to nuclear utility owners for federal failure to remove spent fuel is projected to reach almost $62 billion by 2030.
• The administration’s approach seeks to break the nation’s stalemate over how and where to store spent nuclear fuel; the success of its strategy will have significant implications for the future of U.S. nuclear energy.

Read the analysis.