Transportation and Storage Subcommittee Report to the Full Commission - Updated Report

To organize its investigation of whether changes are needed in the nation’s current approach to storing and eventually transporting spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW), the Subcommittee began by asking a series of related questions:
• What role should storage play in an integrated U.S. waste management system and strategy in the future?
• Are there technical or regulatory uncertainties related to the ability to store existing and future spent fuel and high-level waste safely and securely for an extended period of time (100 years or more) and then transport it safely and securely to another location?
• How should plans for storage be linked to progress on the development of disposal capacity and possible advanced fuel cycles?
• How should needed storage capacity be provided (who should be responsible, where should storage be located10 and how should facilities be funded)?
• What process(es) should be used to select new storage sites (if any), and what are the relative roles of federal, state, tribal, local, and private entities?
• What are the key issues that will affect the ability to transport spent fuel and high-level waste now and in the future at the scale that will eventually be required?
The sections that follow are generally organized according to this same set of questions. In each case, we lead with a discussion that provides background and context and summarizes the results of the Subcommittee’s research to date. We close each section by highlighting our main conclusions.