This bill would create one or more interim storage facilities to hold spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from all the nation’s nuclear power plants and would allow the Energy Department to contract for temporary used nuclear fuel storage facilities. These bills address two of the most important recommendations made in 2011 by then President Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (the BRC), an entity formed to develop a path forward for nuclear power after the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository was halted. One of the main problems with spent nuclear fuel is that it’s not really very spent. Such a high cost could never be covered by the Nuclear Waste Fund in total. Spent nuclear fuel is currently stored on-site at over 120 facilities in the United States.

Source: Forbes February 05, 2017 10:52 UTC