In addition to summarizing the most recent developments (to September 2021), this Congressional Research Service report on the topic of civilian nuclear waste disposal provides a policy background, status of nuclear waste litigation, congressional action including recent legislation, and current policy and regulation for both spent nuclear fuel and low-level radioactive waste.

Our Common Future, Chairman's Foreword 

"A global agenda for change" - this was what the World Commission on Environment and Development was asked to formulate. It was an urgent call by the General Assembly of the United Nations: 

In the absence of a federal geologic repository or consolidated, interim storage in the United States, commercial spent fuel will remain stranded at some 75 sites across the country. Currently, these include 18 “orphaned sites” where spent fuel has been left at decommissioned reactor sites.

With the termination of the Yucca Mountain project, which was proposed to be our nation’s first repository for the disposal of military and civilian spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, the future of nuclear waste management and disposal in this country became increasingly uncertain. Interim storage has been advocated by many as a temporary solution while a permanent solution is studied for potentially several more decades to come.

In October 2022, the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) organised, in collaboration with the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS), a national workshop in Dessel, Belgium, to explore the topic of stakeholder involvement across generations.

Building on previous work on this topic, participants gathered to discuss how to keep local communities involved in radioactive waste management after site selection, how to engage youth as key stakeholders and which approaches can be used to communicate with stakeholders now and in the future.

This paper reflects on the various possible nuclear power production methods from an ethical perspective. The production and consumption of nuclear power give rise to the problem of intergenerational justice; in other words, we are depleting a nonrenewable resource in the form of uranium while the radiotoxic waste that is generated carries very long-term potential burdens. I argue that the morally desirable option should therefore be to seek to safeguard the interests of future generations.

Large-scale investments in land are spreading faster than ever before across the global south. Often these investments target lands governed by customary rights that are not adequately recognized and protected under national laws, or sites where governments lack the capacity to enforce the law. Land deals that change the use of land and natural resources have wide implications for indigenous peoples and local communities who depend primarily on these resources for their livelihoods, welfare and cultural identity.

In November 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or Department) re‐established its Environmental Justice (EJ) Task Force to review and update the 1995 Environmental Justice Strategy and develop an Environmental Justice Five‐Year Implementation Plan.

The Department of Energy (hereinafter DOE or the Department) is responsible for ensuring the Nation’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. DOE maintains the Nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, reduces the threat of nuclear proliferation, oversees the Nation’s energy supply, leads the Nation in areas of federally sponsored basic research critical to U.S.

Inspired by the energy democracy movement, this conceptual review critically explores relationships between concentrated or distributed renewable energy and political power. Advocates assert that because the renewable energy transition is fundamentally a political struggle, efforts to shift from fossil fuels and decarbonize societies will not prove effective without confronting and destabilizing dominant systems of energy power.

The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG) established the NEPA Committee in 2012 pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 (2011).

Introduction

A. The Biden-Harris Administration’s Commitment to Environmental Justice 

The purpose of this report is to equip the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) with evidence-based recommendations to further equity and environmental justice (EJ) efforts within their capacity as the state’s environmental regulatory agency, in service of advancing EJ for those who live, work, and play in Washington. This report is intended to share promising trends and tools, acknowledge common barriers and ideas for overcoming those barriers, elevate successes, and amplify equitable practices for defining, measuring, mobilizing, and sustaining meaningful EJ work.

In response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 and Administrator Regan’s directive to “strengthen enforcement of violations of cornerstone environmental statutes and civil rights laws in communities overburdened by pollution,” OECA issued four policies.1 These policies provide direction to the civil regulatory, compliance assurance, criminal, and cleanup enforcement programs to incorporate environmental justice (EJ) considerations throughout the enforcement process. The key elements of these strategies and preliminary successes are described below.

The U.S. nuclear waste management program has labored for decades at a cost of billions of dollars each year, and yet there is still no active disposal program either for spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors or for the high-level radioactive legacy waste and spent nuclear fuel from defense programs.

On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order (E.O.) 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which established the historic Justice40 Initiative (the Justice40 Initiative, or Justice40). The Justice40 Initiative establishes a goal that 40% of the benefits of climate and clean energy investments flow to disadvantaged communities, which for too long, have faced disinvestment and underinvestment.

Some Members of Congress and the Biden Administration are exploring how to use the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to ensure that environmental laws and policies fairly treat and reflect input from all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income. This principle is commonly referred to as “environmental justice.” Congress enacted NEPA in 1969 to require federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of proposed federal actions prior to making decisions.

The United States has the largest nuclear power plant fleet in the world, with 93 reactors that can generate approximately 95,522 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Nuclear power has accounted for about 20% of annual U.S. electricity generation since the late 1980s; in 2020 it was 19.7%. However, the U.S. nuclear power industry in recent years has been facing economic and financial challenges, particularly plants located in competitive power markets where natural gas and renewable power generators influence wholesale electricity prices. Twelve U.S.

With the termination of the Yucca Mountain project, which was proposed to be our nation’s first repository for the disposal of military and civilian spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, the future of nuclear waste management and disposal in this country became increasingly uncertain. Interim storage has been advocated by many as a temporary solution while a permanent solution is studied for potentially several more decades to come.

The president realized that the nation lacked a clear policy for developing a deep-mined geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. New legislation would be required to chart a more promising path forward. The views of multiple parties had to be taken into account. He decided to create a high-level body to ventilate the issues involved and to make recommendations. He charged the group with holding public meetings and soliciting comments on draft documents to make the deliberations as transparent as possible.

Effective risk communication is essential to the well-being of any organization and those people who depend on it. Ineffective communication can cost lives, money, and reputations. Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User's Guide provides the scientific foundations for effective communication.

This report documents the work of one of the most successful Federal advisory committees in the history of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) was established by EPA on September 30, 1993 to provide independent advice to the EPA Administrator on broad, cross-cutting issues related to environmental justice.

In October 2009, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (Board or NWTRB) published Survey of National Programs for Managing High-Level Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel.  For each of the 13 national programs studied, the report catalogued 15 institutional arrangements that had been set in place and 15 technical approaches that had been taken to design repository systems for the long-term management of high-activity radioactive waste.