Energy secretary: We must find a solution for nuclear waste

WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) — It is critical to find a solution for storing the nation's spent nuclear fuel, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Friday during a visit to a nuclear power plant in Connecticut.

Granholm was invited to tour Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford by Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, the local congressional member. They are both working to change how spent nuclear fuel is stored nationwide to solve a decadeslong stalemate.

Spent fuel that was meant to be stored temporarily at current and former nuclear plant sites nationwide is piling up. Some of it dates to the 1980s.

“It is important for us as a nation to say we are finding a place to store nuclear waste in one place, so that communities are not bearing this responsibility and we are consolidating the waste,” Granholm said at Millstone in front what appeared to be a concrete bunker that stores spent fuel.

There’s renewed momentum to figure out a storage site, or sites, to free up the land where the waste is currently being stored and move it away from population centers, fault lines and flood plains. The Biden administration and many state officials view nuclear energy as essential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and staving off the worst effects of a warming planet.

To responsibly use nuclear power, Courtney said, “We have to move on this issue.”

The Energy Department is working to develop a process to ask communities if they are interested in storing spent nuclear fuel on an interim basis, both to make nuclear power a more sustainable option and figure out what to do with the waste.

Granholm said it’s the best way to finally solve the issue. A plan to build a national storage facility northwest of Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain has been mothballed because of staunch...