The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed special railcars for future large-scale DOE transport of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plants. The designs include the Atlas railcar (designed to transport SNF containers), new buffer railcars, and a new escort railcar for security personnel that was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing to ship one container of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from a nuclear power plant to a national laboratory to undergo further research. DOE is coordinating the shipment with Tribal and State governments and offering technical assistance and training.

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPP) transports classified, high-value U.S. Navy ship components by rail, including naval spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE NE)

This report titled “Design and Prototype Fabrication of Railcars for Transport of High-Level Radioactive Materials, Phase 2: Preliminary Design” compiles the work that was completed during Phase 2.

In preparation of an integrated nuclear waste management program, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing for future large-scale transport of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), high-level radioactive waste (HLW), and Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste. A part of this preparation includes developing a fleet of railcars to be used for the transport of High-Level Radioactive Material (HLRM) and GTCC waste.

This report titled “Design and Prototype Fabrication of Railcars for Transport of High-Level Radioactive Material, Phase 3: Prototype Fabrication and Delivery” compiles the work that was completed during Phase 3. This report includes a summary of the results in meeting Phase 3 contract objectives including fabrication of the prototype railcars, an as-built data package for the fabricated railcars, test load and ballast load fabrication designs, and copies of Phase 3 deliverables in the appendices. 

As part of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Atlas Railcar Project, the Atlas and Buffer railcars were developed to meet the need for future large-scale rail transport of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. MxV Rail (formerly Transportation Technology Center, Inc.), a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), performed singlecar certification testing and modeling on these railcars.

This presentation provides an overview of the DOE-NE recent activities and future plans given by Dr. Erica Bickford, Director, Office of Storage & Transportation at the NTSF Annual Meeting May 20-22, 2025. 

Research project started in 2014 as a collaboration between DOE and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to support safe storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF).

This interface control document (ICD) identifies, manages and controls the transportation system interactions between the Atlas railcar transportation equipment and external activities including vendor-supplied high-level radioactive material (HLRM) transportation casks and cradles. The term HLRM was established by Association of American Railroads (AAR). HLRM includes both spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.

Factsheet about DOE High Burnup Research Cask Project (HBURC) dated April 2025.

This report fulfills the M3 milestone M3SF-23PN0203020614, “Updated NPP Site Evaluation Report (2).” This report is an update of the 2021 report Nuclear Power Plant Infrastructure Evaluations for Removal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and includes expansion of the site evaluations to include operating nuclear power plant (NPP) sites and to incorporate updated site inventory data. Figures that include the number of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies and metric tons heavy metal (MTHM) in a single figure have also been added to the report.

This report was developed as part of a knowledge management effort to document past U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) activities related to spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) transportation, storage, and disposal, including policy considerations, and to serve as an information resource in the ongoing planning for an integrated waste management program.

Consent-based siting consortia support DOE's efforts to facilitate inclusive community engagement and elicit public feedback on consent-based siting, management of spent nuclear fuel, and federal consolidated interim storage. The 12 awardees are comprised of various organizations to help reach communities across the country and remove barriers to participate in DOE's consent-based siting process.

Awardees have made significant progress in carrying out community engagement activities and providing direct grants to communities wanting to learn more.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has established a Tribal Collaboration Initiative (TCI) that will ensure federally recognized Tribes have direct and meaningful input into DOE’s consent-based siting (CBS) process for one or more federal consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs). Establishing a TCI ensures federally recognized Tribal interests and concerns are directly communicated and accurately represented to DOE, as the agency continues developing the siting process.

This spreadsheet provides a list of documents that national laboratory staff found through a search of the literature on social and behavioral science and environmental justice issues related to spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. The review was conducted from 2022 to mid-2023. It sorts the references into themes identified in the table of contents. Papers that fit more than one theme may be listed in more than one section.

This is the presentation from January 8, 2025 webinar provided by Gerard Jackson, U.D. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, and Miriam Juckett, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

In this sixth installment of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) consent-based siting webinar series, DOE officials discuss consent-based siting progress and answer questions related to the federal consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. The questions are drawn from public feedback received during previous webinars, from social science research, and from inquiries sent to DOE email inboxes.

In this fifth installment of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) consent-based siting webinar series, a roundtable of panelists reflect on how to scale-up, re-think, or broaden the national dialogue on spent nuclear fuel management. Joining the discussion are journalists, energy policy experts, social media influencers, advertising specialists, a documentary filmmaker, members of communities currently hosting spent nuclear fuel facilities, and more.

May 25, 2024 webinar hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy Consent-Based Siting Consortia. The facilitated discussion talks about what it takes—and what it means—to successfully site a facility. Discussions include guests representing communities, industry, academia, and government who have real-world experience with hosting or siting a variety of facilities in the United States and abroad.

The U.S. Department of Energy and its Consent-Based Siting Consortia hear about inclusive public engagement from panelists representing nonprofits, professional societies, and other national, regional, and State groups.

Consent-Based Siting Consortia Virtual Open House held November 2, 2023 in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Consent-Based Siting Consortia Kickoff webinar held July 25, 2023 in Washington, D.C. This video was edited to address technical glitches during the broadcast and recording of the webinar. The original recording can be requested by emailing consentbasedsiting@hq.doe.gov.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ddoJDWNlxA

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Justice and Equity will host its third Justice Week. The goal of Justice Week is to share best practices, highlight successes, and identify continued challenge areas or areas of growth.