Submitted by Neil McKiernan.
Washington, DC – In letters to regional, state, and local elected officials last week, Congressman Joe Courtney highlighted the opportunity to respond to a “request for information” from the U.S. Department of Energy on a “consent-based” process to move spent nuclear material to interim storage sites. The RFI is being conducted based on direction from Congress, which included $20 million advocated for by Rep. Courtney in the FY 2021 omnibus that was signed into law in December 2020, to initiate a process to develop interim consolidated storage options for spent nuclear materials.
“On December 1st, the Department took the first step in the process to develop consolidated storage options for spent nuclear materials by issuing a request for information (RFI) with the goal of collecting feedback from a wide range of stakeholders all over the country that will help them develop the consent-based process and inform their overall waste management strategy. The window for interested parties to respond is open until March 4, 2022,” Courtney wrote. “It is worth noting that DOE specifically has indicated that they are accepting comments not only from municipalities and similar stakeholders who are interested in exploring acceptance of waste, but also from entities…such as Haddam and Waterford who want to weigh in on how burdensome the status quo is.”
Courtney is a member of the bipartisan House Spent Nuclear Fuel Solutions Caucus and has long advocated for action on removing spent nuclear fuel and materials from local sites such as the decommissioned Connecticut Yankee plant in Haddam and legacy materials from the Millstone Power Plant in Waterford. With efforts to designate Yucca Mountain as the permanent repository for all spent nuclear fuel currently stalled, Courtney has worked across the aisle to develop alternate strategies for addressing the pressing problem of removing spent nuclear fuel from local communities.
For example, in 2018 Courtney helped pass bipartisan legislation which, for the first time, authorized a consolidated interim storage program that will allow stranded nuclear waste stored in local communities to be moved to a remote location before a permanent repository is completed. In 2020, he helped lead a request to the House Appropriations Committee requesting funding for developing interim storage plans in the FY2021 budget, ultimately funded at $20 million in the final FY21 spending package passed in December 2020 and being used now to initiate this process.
In addition to the letter shared below, Courtney shared an information paper outlining the latest developments on the issue and the process underway. Click here to read that information paper.
Text of Congressman Courtney’s letter
Dear Elected Official:
I am writing to provide an update on recent actions in Congress and by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop and implement a consent-based siting process to identify sites to store spent nuclear fuel. In the omnibus federal budget passed in December 2020, $20 million was appropriated to establish a “consent-based” process to move spent nuclear waste to interim storage sites. This approach has been successfully implemented in the country of Finland who broke ground in May 2021 for its underground storage facility.
On December 1st, the Department took the first step in this process by issuing a request for information (RFI) with the goal of collecting feedback from a wide range of stakeholders all over the country that will help them develop the consent-based process and inform their overall waste management strategy. The window for interested parties to respond is open until March 4, 2022.
It is worth noting that DOE specifically has indicated that they are accepting comments not only from municipalities and similar stakeholders who are interested in exploring acceptance of waste, but also from entities who want to explain their opposition to becoming a site and those such as Haddam and Waterford who want to weigh in on how burdensome the status quo is. On January 20, 2022, I attended a Member of Congress meeting with Dr. Kathryn Huff, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy, who briefed us on this new process. She said the Department has already received serious, encouraging responses from different parts of the country that the Department will collate and publicly report on in 2022. This meeting took place with Dr. Huff and the bipartisan Spent Nuclear Fuel Solutions Caucus, of which I am a member.
I have attached a memorandum with more details of the DOE process, in case your community wishes to weigh in to the RFI. My congressional office district director, Ms. Ayanti Grant, is point of contact on this issue in Connecticut, and Ms. Samantha DeVito is my Legislative Assistant in Washington who is assigned to spent nuclear fuel issues. If you would like to follow up with a call or meeting, please feel free to contact us.
Sincerely,
JOE COURTNEY
Member of Congress
