ANS sends waste policy recommendations to DOE

October 15, 2025, 12:02PMRadwaste Solutions

The American Nuclear Society has sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright with a set of recommendations for the Department of Energy to take to establish an effective national program to manage the storage, reprocessing, and final disposal of U.S. commercial used nuclear fuel.

ANS’s letter comes in response to President Trump’s Executive Order 14302, “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” which requires the secretary of energy, in coordination with the secretary of defense, the secretary of transportation, and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to prepare a report addressing numerous important issues related to the nuclear fuel cycle.

ANS said its recommendations pertaining to the back end of the fuel cycle will hopefully prove useful to the DOE in developing its report. Due within 240 days of the executive order’s May 23 date, the report will include national policy recommendations on the storage, reprocessing, and disposal of used nuclear fuel and high-level waste from the nuclear energy industry and the government.

“The U.S. has no stable, coherent nuclear fuel cycle policy,” wrote ANS President Hash Hashemian and ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy in the letter. “The federal government’s protracted failure to fulfill its statutory and contractual obligations in this area stands in sharp contrast to other nations that are moving forward while the U.S. stands still.”

“ANS applauds the administration for addressing issues that have been neglected for too long,” the letter continued.

The recommendations: The letter divides its recommendations into two broad categories: general programmatic recommendations and specific aspects of an integrated nuclear fuel cycle back-end program.

In its general recommendations on program management and policy, ANS advises the administration to do the following:

Reestablish the DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management to carry out federal government obligations related to used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

Explore demonstration projects and new approaches on a small, achievable scale that offer practical, cost-effective solutions for the nuclear fuel cycle.

Build a sustainable, nonpartisan program that can continue across multiple presidential administrations.

Acknowledge and address nonproliferation considerations with appropriate rigor, with special focus on continued U.S. engagement and leadership in supporting the International Atomic Energy Agency and enforcing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Develop proposals and engage with Congress on an up-to-date nuclear waste policy.

In its specific recommendations on aspects of an integrated nuclear fuel cycle back-end program, ANS advises the administration to do the following:

Revise the 2008 DOE report DOE/RW-0595 and update standards of 40 CFR Part 191 in order to open the door for new deep geologic repository options.

Pursue consolidated interim storage of commercial used nuclear fuel.

Explore fuel recycling through public-private demonstration projects to reduce uncertainties, evaluate new technologies, and assess market fit.

“These recommendations are generally consistent with other stakeholder organizations that have, like ANS, been engaged on these issues for decades,” wrote Hashemian and Piercy.

Position statement: Many of the letter’s recommendations are contained in the ANS Position Statement #3, Management of the Nation’s Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste, which documents 11 essential elements of a comprehensive approach to the back end of the fuel cycle.

“This letter does not attempt to replicate Position Statement #3 or even attempt to address every aspect of the 240 Day Report,” wrote Hashemian and Piercy. “Instead, it highlights some key points that relate to the Executive Order and the goal of establishing an effective domestic program for management of the back end.”

In July, ANS joined seven other organizations to send a letter to Secretary Wright, asking to meet with him to discuss “the restoration of a highly functioning program to meet DOE’s legal responsibility to manage and dispose of the nation’s commercial and legacy defense spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.”

Response: Steve Nesbit, president of LMNT Consulting and ANS past president (2021–2022), said he was pleased to see the Trump administration taking up the issues in EO 14302, adding that his personal wish list for the DOE report is consistent with the ANS letter.

“First and foremost, the federal government needs to reinstitute a real geologic repository program and develop new public health and safety standards to support it,” he said. “I would like to see the ongoing Department of Energy initiative to develop a consolidated storage facility for used nuclear fuel continue, with a focus on removing fuel from shutdown plant sites.”

Nesbit also noted that several private companies are pursuing technologies such as recycling and borehole disposal to address the challenges of used fuel and HLW management. “I would like to see these technologies progress to demonstration programs so that we can see if they are practical for application in the United States on an industrial scale,” he said.


Related Articles

The current status of heat pipe R&D

October 10, 2025, 4:42PMNuclear NewsIlyas Yilgor, Mauricio Tano, Katrina Sweetland, Joshua Hansel, and Piyush Sabharwall

Idaho National Laboratory under the Department of Energy–sponsored Microreactor Program recently conducted a comprehensive phenomena identification and ranking table (PIRT) exercise aimed at...

DOE, NRC prepare for government shutdown

October 1, 2025, 12:03PMNuclear News

The Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will furlough thousands of employees and operate at reduced capacity under a government shutdown that started after midnight on...