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By EPN Staff

The effort to identify potential areas for spent nuclear fuel storage is gaining traction in multiple regions, including Kentucky, Tennessee, Idaho, New Mexico and Colorado, urning attention toward northwest Colorado, where storage could support economic opportunity and help transition toward a more sustainable energy economy.

Five local government agencies in those states have received a $75,000 grant from the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), an organization of local governments affected by US Department of Energy activities, to “develop avenues for inclusive public engagement, education, and discussions of consent-based siting approaches.”

Why it matters         

Since the 1980s, the United States has attempted to find a safe storage site for spent nuclear reactor fuel.  Authorities long hoped Nevada’s Yucca Mountain would be an appropriate site for such storage but the project was derailed by strong public opposition.

Lacking a centralized site, nuclear waste is piling up at nuclear facilities at an enormous cost to taxpayers.

The bigger picture

Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, representing northwest counties and municipalities, is conducting community outreach regarding an interim nuclear spent fuel storage repository.

Using surveys, focus groups, interviews, and other outreach tools, the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative (NCEI) within the AGNC is engaging public officials about the subject as part of a larger goal to transition the region away from coal.

Other ECA grant recipients include:

  • Butte County, Idaho, which is home to more than half of the land associated with Idaho National Laboratory, a federal research lab focusing on advanced nuclear energy.
  • Carlsbad (N.M.) Department of Development. Less than 30 miles southeast of Carlsbad is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the nation’s only deep geologic long-lived radioactive waste repository, more than 2,000 feet underground.
  • The City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, known for the nearby Oak Ridge nuclear site that was one of the three original sites in the Manhattan Project.  
  • Shaping Our Appalachian Region, a nonprofit focused on helping Eastern Kentucky shift from coal to more innovative energy technologies, including nuclear power.
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