Interim private storage could be best next step for nuclear waste, senator says

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said at a budget hearing last week that private, interim facilities could be the quickest and least expensive for the federal government to start meeting its obligations regarding nuclear waste.

“To ensure that nuclear power has a strong future in this country, we must solve the 25-year-old stalemate over what to do with used fuel from our nuclear reactors,” Alexander said. “To solve the stalemate, we need to find places to build geologic repositories and temporary storage facilities so the federal government can finally meet its legal obligation to dispose of nuclear waste safely and permanently.”

Two private companies have submitted applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for
consolidated storage facilities for used nuclear fuel, one in Texas and one in New Mexico.

Alexander, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, said that while he supports opening the Yucca Mountain repository for nuclear waste, the U.S. has more than enough waste to fill the facility and needs a solution for the time the Department of Energy (DOE) is pursuing licensing for Yucca Mountain.

He plans to reintroduce legislation this year to implement the recommendations of the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future and create a new federal agency to find additional permanent repositories and temporary facilities for used nuclear fuel.

“But the quickest, and probably the least expensive, way for the federal government to start to meet its used nuclear fuel obligations is for the Department of Energy to contract with a private storage facility for used nuclear fuel,” Alexander said.