A coalition of state and local officials from areas hosting nuclear waste called on newly installed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to better focus the department's attention on solving the disposal stalemate.
In a letter this week, the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition — a collection of state attorneys general, utility commissioners and consumer advocates from places with existing or retired nuclear reactors — urged the Biden administration to seek funding and legal changes for the Department of Energy to
break through the decades long waste logjam.
"Tribal and local communities in 34 states are storing commercial nuclear waste, some already for decades longer than the federal government promised them," said Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Chairwoman Katie Sieben, who also chairs the coalition.
"This situation has caused untenable, costly consequences for taxpayers, utility customers, and utilities, and a course correction is needed," she said. "We respectfully request Secretary Granholm's assistance."
Because of the federal government's failure to address the waste problem following the Obama administration's decision to shutter the controversial Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada, both Congress and regulators have been rudderless on a way forward.
That inaction has resulted in more than 80,000 metric tons of waste piling up at reactor sites across the country, with liability costs to federal taxpayers reaching more than $2 million per day.
During her confirmation hearing, Granholm committed to not seeking a return to Yucca Mountain, but instead promised to pursue a consent-based siting strategy for consolidated interim storage, as recommended by the 2013 blue ribbon commission report.
"As a former Governor of a significantly impacted state, you are keenly aware of the federal government's consistent failures in this area, but you have an opportunity to change course," the coalition wrote this week.
The coalition recommended that DOE work with Congress for greater access to the $43 billion set aside in the Nuclear Waste Fund to help pay for disposal activities.
Congress provided $27.5 million in fiscal 2021 for introductory integrated waste management activities at the department.
The coalition suggested those activities should focus on simultaneously pursuing a permanent disposal site and an interim storage pilot facility for shut-down reactor waste.
In addition to that spending, the group urged DOE to "seek all necessary additional resources in DOE's FY 2022 budget request to continue and expand upon these priorities in support of the Call for Action."
