Board Letter to U.S. Congress and Secretary to Energy - March 18, 2025 - pns001vf-nwtrb-mar2025-letter-report.pdf

Board Letter to U.S. Congress and Secretary to Energy - March 18, 2025 - pns001vf-nwtrb-mar2025-letter-report.pdf UNITED STATES NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD 2300 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 1300 Arlington, VA 22201-3367 Telephone: 703-235-4473 Fax: 703-235-4494 www.nwtrb.gov March 18, 2025 The Honorable Mike Johnson Speaker of the House United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Chuck Grassley President Pro Tempore United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 The Honorable Christopher Wright Secretary United States Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20585 Dear Speaker Johnson, Senator Grassley, and Secretary Wright: The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board was established as an independent federal agency in the 1987 Amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) and is charged with performing an independent evaluation of the technical and scientific validity of activities undertaken by the Secretary of Energy to implement the NWPA. The Board is required by Section 508 of the NWPA, as amended, to report its findings, conclusions, and recommendations to Congress and the Secretary of Energy. Since its inception, the Board has provided independent expert review of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) activities, and the Board strives to offer constructive and actionable recommendations that, if implemented, serve to bolster the success of, and confidence in, the national nuclear waste management program. To fulfill its mission, the Board must work closely with the DOE. In this regard, the Board specifically thanks the current DOE team within the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), led by Acting Assistant Secretary Michael Goff and Deputy Assistant Secretary Paul Murray for their ongoing support of our mission. We commend the entire DOE-NE team for their commitment to moving the nation toward a permanent solution for the management of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. In providing this letter as our first report of 2025, the Board takes the opportunity to summarize a small number of broad observations clearly and directly to a new Congress and a new Secretary. In part, we are restating and expanding on observations that we have made in the past that relate directly to the technical and scientific activities essential for a successful program for managing spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. These observations are rooted both in our long history of reviewing the DOE’s program and from lessons learned from other nations actively conducting nuclear waste management. We present our observations here in formal terms as a finding, two conclusions, and a recommendation. Additional information supporting our bases for these points is provided in an attachment to this letter. None of the points raised here should come as a surprise to anyone; each has been noted before by this Board and by others. We believe, however, that there is value in emphasizing them at this time of transition. Finding: The nation needs one or more deep geologic repositories for permanent disposal of domestic spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The Board finds that a successful program for safe long-term management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste will require a geologic repository for safe permanent disposal. As described further in the attachment, this finding is consistent with decades of scientific research and expert review in the U.S. and other nations, and is a fundamental premise of the NWPA of 1982. Without a geologic repository the nation will be unable to fulfill its responsibilities for managing and disposing of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste that have been created since the 1940s, are still being produced for national defense and energy needs, and will likely expand to meet future national needs. Conclusion 1: The Department of Energy does not have an effective program, as of December 2024, that could lead to a deep geologic repository. Based on our review of the technical and scientific basis for the DOE-NE activities, the Board concludes that the existing research and development program evaluating hypothetical disposal concepts without actions to identify one or more specific sites for consideration will not alone be sufficient to meet the national responsibility to develop a repository for permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. As described further in the attachment, this conclusion is not meant to be a criticism of technical and scientific work done within the existing DOE program; the Board has in past reviews found merit in much of that work. Permanent disposal of radioactive waste requires knowledge of the geologic system that can only be gained through site-specific activities. The conclusion is based on the common-sense observation that a research program cannot, on its own, lead directly to the disposal of radioactive wastes in a geologic repository without site-specific investigations. Conclusion 2: The lack of an effective repository program brings a high risk that ongoing efforts to site one or more federal interim storage facilities will ultimately be unsuccessful. Also based on its ongoing review, the Board concludes that the DOE-NE efforts to develop one or more federal consolidated interim storage facilities for commercial spent nuclear fuel are unlikely to meet with full success without substantive progress toward implementing a geologic disposal solution. Specifically, confidence that a repository for permanent disposal will be available in the future is likely to be a significant factor in achieving acceptance at local, state, and national levels for new interim storage facilities. As described further in the attachment, this conclusion is a restatement of an observation made by this Board in April 2024. Consistent with this finding and these conclusions, the Board offers the following recommendation: Recommendation: The Board recommends that the Department of Energy take the steps necessary, working with Congress as needed, to create a workable pathway to site, license, construct, and operate a geologic repository for the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Consistent with the Board’s statutory mandate and as explained in the attachment, the finding, conclusions, and recommendation presented here are based solely on considerations of the technical and scientific aspects of those activities needed to successfully implement an integrated nuclear waste management program. We make no recommendations regarding policy actions that may or may not be associated with efforts to establish an effective repository program. The Board welcomes the opportunity to discuss any of these topics further with you. Sincerely, Peter Swift Chair Enclosure cc: The Honorable Mike Lee, U.S. Senate The Honorable Martin Heinrich, U.S. Senate The Honorable John Kennedy, U.S. Senate The Honorable Patty Murray, U.S. Senate The Honorable Bob Latta, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Kathy Castor, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Chuck Fleischmann, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Marcy Kaptur, U.S. House of Representatives Dr. Michael Goff, Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy Note: Current and past Members of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board who have contributed to this letter include P. Swift (Chair), R. Allen-King, R. Ballinger, L. Barrett, M. Greiner, S. Jurisson, N. Siu, S. Tuler, S. Tyler, and B. Woods. Support was provided by the professional and administrative staff of the U.S. NWTRB.