Trump’s nuclear push is reviving a moribund debate over waste

[Marlin]

Trump's nuclear push is reviving a moribund debate over waste

https://www.eenews.net/articles/trumps-nuclear-push-is-reviving-a-moribund-debate-over-waste/

[Core Content]

The Department of Energy is soliciting proposals for Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses to manage spent nuclear fuel and explore reprocessing technologies. The initiative seeks to address the accumulation of over 95,000 metric tons of radioactive waste currently stored at 80 sites across the United States, following decades of federal inaction on permanent disposal.

This shift reflects a move away from the stalled Yucca Mountain project, which remains the only congressionally authorized repository despite being defunded since 2010. By incentivizing states to host facilities for fuel recycling and storage, the government aims to secure the domestic fuel supply chain while navigating complex legal and political barriers to long-term waste management.

The Energy Department has been required for decades to find a final storage site for radioactive spent fuel. Some of that pressure has let up, and it's

The push for a new wave of nuclear power plants has sparked optimism that the technology may be ready to rejoin the build-out of new electricity generation — and finally prod the federal government to address the mountain of radioactive waste that has built up over decades.

That spent fuel, totaling more than 95,000 metric tons, has accumulated mostly from the fleet of reactors built decades ago that provide the U.S. with a fifth of its electricity, and its disposal has posed an intractable problem for the federal government since the dawn of the nuclear age.

Read the full article at E&E News by POLITICO:
https://www.eenews.net/articles/trumps-nuclear-push-is-reviving-a-moribund-debate-over-waste/