The WHEJAC Workgroups were established to develop draft recommendations to assist the WHEJAC in providing independent advice and recommendations to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and to the White House Interagency Council on Environmental Justice (Interagency Council) on how to increase the Federal Government’s efforts to address current and historic environmental injustice.

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.

Mothers for Nuclear Informational Flyer

This tool is intended to allow users to explore and produce reports on census tracts that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has categorized as disadvantaged communities, or DACs, pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 14008 - Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), as amended, requires DOE to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and specifies that the only site that may be considered for the permanent disposal of commercial spent nuclear fuel is a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. However, in 2010, DOE terminated its efforts to license a repository at Yucca Mountain, and Congress stopped funding activities related to the site. Since then, policymakers have been at an impasse on how to meet the federal disposal obligation, with significant financial consequences for taxpayers.

This document summarizes comments received on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Draft Consent-Based Siting Process for Consolidated Storage and Disposal Facilities for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste (referred to throughout this document as the Draft Consent-Based Siting Process). DOE published a request for public comment on the Draft Consent-Based Siting Process in the Federal Register on January 13, 2017 (82 FR 4333).

Status and Trends in Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management is a collaborative project between the IAEA, the European Commission and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, with the participation of nuclear industry organization the World Nuclear Association, that aims to consolidate and complement the information gathered from different initiatives around the world.

A viral YouTube video recently discussed the age-old question “why don’t we shoot nuclear waste into space?”

It’s a topic we often get asked about on social media.

While the educational video’s cartoonish depictions of nuclear waste as glowing green ooze made some of our subject matter experts cringe, it’s clear that the content creators did their homework.

Summarize alternatives for moving SONGS SNF offsite to an interim storage facility or repository. Describe the process for preparing for transporting canisters offsite. Summariz the SCE Action plan for making progress to move SNF offsite.

There has been, for decades, a worldwide consensus in the nuclear technical community for disposal through geological isolation of high-level waste (HLW), including spent nuclear fuel (SNF).  However, none of the national programs established to implement geological disposal has yet succeeded in establishing a geological repository and emplacing HLW in it. The large and growing HLW inventory from civilian and military reactor use over nearly 60 years remains in surface facilities intended only for interim storage.

This brochure shortly describes the various steps of the nuclear fuel cycle by covering areas from mining and milling to disposal of spent fuel and other radioactive waste.

Consent-based siting is an approach that seeks communities’ willing and informed consent to accept new development or host a project in their area. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is using a consent-based siting process to identify one or more federal consolidated interim storage facilities for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, a byproduct of nuclear power generation. Spent nuclear fuel is currently stored at more than 70 sites across the country in communities that did not agree to host the material long term.

In this document, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) outlines its road map for implementing a consent-based siting process to site one or more federal consolidated interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel. 

What is Consent-Based Siting?

Consent-based siting is an approach that seeks the willing and informed consent of people and communities to host a project in their area. This process is designed to be flexible, adaptive, and responsive to community concerns.

How is DOE using Consent-Based Siting? How can people and communities participate?