ECA Highlights for Participants at Waste Management
ECA Staff | 03/11/2024
As Waste Management 2024 kicks off we want to highlight several issues for the participants:
Appropriations
The Big news on Friday – just before midnight is that Congress passed the FY24 (which started in September of 2023) appropriation bill and the President signed it – WHEW! The summary of the bill is set forth below.
Today, the top line numbers for the President’s budget request for FY 25 are being released. Although the speeches will highlight the need to pass the bill in “regular order” (prior to September 30, 2024), ECA is speculating that the FY25 appropriations bill will likely pass after the November Presidential election.
However, the budget outline (to be released to day) and the details that will follow shortly, will provide a solid outline of how the final bill will move forward. ECA would like to highlight that EM, NNSA and NE (which are all at record funding levels) have support from both political parties and that is expected to continue. ECA also notes that the deficit is a discussion point for any election. It would not come as a surprise to see flat funding or slight increases in the funding requests.
The president’s budget proposal is supposed to kick off early discussions on discretionary spending, however, the FY2025 process is already off to an unusual start as the House Budget Committee marked up a FY2025 budget resolution last week. This is typically the second step of the budget process, after the president’s plan. Lawmakers have also already agreed to statutory spending caps for FY2025 discretionary spending, which was negotiated in the 2023 debt-limit law (Public Law 118-5) and provides a guide for next year’s spending levels. However, they will likely continue to debate the “side deal” for additional nondefense spending beyond the $710.7 billion cap in that law.
EM Cleanup to Clean Energy and Nuclear Projects on DOE Land
Cleanup to Clean Energy is moving forward! At the beginning of the Administration ECA called for a program to reuse DOE sites for clean energy. The communities appreciate that the RFPs for the sites are out at Idaho (INL), Nevada (NNSS), New Mexico (WIPP) and South Carolina (SRS) sites. The next step is for the selection of a contractor at each site to develop the projects. There are numerous steps before we see a project, however the progress made so far since the program was announced in the summer is great. Developing clean energy projects on DOE sites is a great use of the sites and can provide additional opportunities for DOE, the local communities and the region.
Similarly, ECA continues to identify more SMR and potential nuclear fuel projects and more sites to create economic development opportunities where they did not previously exist. For example, the announcement that the NRC voted to issue a construction permit to Kairos Power for the Hermes demonstration reactor to be built on former DOE land in Oak Ridge, Tennessee is a step in the right direction. Further, Oklo and the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative signed an agreement on February 1, which provides Oklo with a lands rights agreement to develop two nuclear plants on former DOE land. Other communities are looking at other nuclear development options and are going through the planning process.
ECA has always advocated developing energy projects on DOE land and it is good to see it moving forward.
To continue to move forward with energy projects ECA is hosting our third annual New Nuclear Forum: Building Nuclear Partnerships and Programs on May 8-9 in Kennewick, WA. The Department of Energy, industry, utilities, DOE contractors, local, state and tribal governments, policy makers and others will discuss how to move nuclear projects forward. We are expecting a large amount of industry and local communities participation from around the country!
EM Disposal Pathways – still needed
In 2024 ECA wants to see progress on developing disposal pathways for all EM waste. As ECA stated last year in Disposal Drives Cleanup
“Identifying and implementing final disposal paths for all waste streams is the largest impediment to ……“cleanup” of the environmental legacy resulting from nuclear weapons and government-sponsored nuclear research activities.
While DOE has made substantial progress across the cleanup complex in creating waste repositories for specific types of waste, they appear to have stalled in developing, implementing, and finalizing disposal locations and plans for all waste, especially for some of the most challenging materials that pose the largest hazards and costs."
As the EM budget has increased to over $8 billion we are also seeing the EM liability for cleanup increase around the management of high-level waste (HLW). In the past almost half the EM budget is dedicated to managing (HLW) which currently has no disposal pathway. DOE – in 2022 - listed the potential liability of EM at $392 Billion (and we believe that assumes a disposal pathway and that the scope is known). Interest rates and costs of the work has increased significantly and cost of the all government liabilities have increased so we will be interested to see 2024 numbers in the budget. Although no one wants to discuss it – the communities want to see progress on a process and we want to see the actual liability to tax-payers for spent nuclear fuel (private sites) and high level waste (DOE sites).
The current Consent Based Siting process is a start and ECA still recommends that "DOE should support and complete its latest attempt to utilize consent-based siting to identify interim storage sites, while also applying consent-based siting to identify final disposal for defense- and commercial-SNF and DOE-managed HLW. DOE needs to make the disposal of defense-related SNF and HLW of equal priority, and geological repository siting should proceed in parallel with efforts to develop an interim storage site. DOE should support and complete its latest attempt to utilize consent-based siting to identify interim storage sites, while also applying consent-based siting to identify final disposal for defense- and commercial-SNF and DOE-managed HLW".
DOE needs to make the disposal of defense-related SNF and HLW of equal priority, and geological repository siting should proceed in parallel with efforts to develop an interim storage site.
ECA Grants to Communities for Consent Based Siting
ECA just released a grant application for local governments to build capacity for consent based siting. The grant application can be found on ECA’s web page.
ECA is also releasing a series of fact sheets for communities to facilitate building an education resource for local communities interested in hosting a interim storage facility.
National Cleanup Workshop
The 10th Annual National Cleanup Workshop will be held September 16-18 2024 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott.
The National Cleanup Workshop is hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) with the cooperation of the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM). Each we bring together DOE leaders to discuss the path forward for EM and this year is expected to be the largest meeting to date.
ECA as part of the Global Partnership of Nuclear Communities
ECA, along with its partners in Europe and Canada formed the Global Partnership of Nuclear Communities in 2022. The organization whose founding members are: GMF Europe, Canadian Association of Nuclear Communities and Energy Communities Alliance currently has local governments in 18 countries and growing. We formed during an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting and the IAEA has been instrumental in helping bring together local governments from around the world to share best practices and opportunities.
Our goal is to exchange information and to educate industry and governments on the benefits of engaging with local governments as partners – not just stakeholders – in developing and hosting nuclear projects. We are seeing new nuclear development opportunities growing in our communities and we are creating best practices for the community and industry as we continue to see joint opportunities for nuclear development in reactors, fuel, storage and disposal.
As we work with our international partners at WMS we look forward to continuing to forge strong bonds.
Conclusion
As we meet with our colleagues at Waste Management 2024, we want to thank the Waste Management leadership and organizers for engaging with local governments and communities and we want to congratulate them on 30 years!
Summary of the FY 2024 Annual Appropriation Act for Energy and Water Issues