NCSU, MfN, and Native Nuclear Partnership for Collaboration-Based Siting
DOE Awards $26 Million to Support Collaboration-Based Siting for Used Nuclear Fuel – You can read our blog post about the award announcement here.
Collaboration-based siting is an approach to siting facilities that focuses on the needs and concerns of people and communities. Communities participate in the siting process by working carefully through a series of phases. Each phase helps a community determine whether and how hosting a facility is aligned with that community’s goals. By its nature, a collaboration-based siting process must be flexible, adaptive, and responsive to community concerns. Thus, the phases and steps are intended to serve as a guide, not a prescriptive set of instructions.
Twelve project teams represent diverse organizations, a makeup the DOE hopes will enable a wide range of perspectives and approaches. One of these teams includes Mothers for Nuclear in partnership with North Carolina State University and Native Nuclear. We specifically hope to help find the best ways to ensure that everyone who should be included in this conversation IS included.
Yucca Mountain was a failure for many reasons, but largely because the proposal assumed that communities already impacted by nuclear issues wouldn’t have further concerns when faced with more nuclear issues. Consent was not pursued, and it turned out that not all the local communities and government entities were not on board with the idea. We must be conscious of these past failures when determining a better path for the future.
We are excited for this opportunity to facilitate further discussions with respect to the question: “What about the waste!?” This is almost always one of the first things community members ask us about nuclear energy. We are at Stage 1, capacity building.
We also hope to talk about nuclear’s role in fighting against climate change and in achieving a just transition to clean energy. Ultimately, our goal is to involve local communities in all aspects of an energy source that can give us all hope for the future of humanity on this planet.
Here are links to our posts about the workshops we’ve hosted thus far, on our “Past Activities” blog:
January 27, 2024: Raleigh, NC
June 15, 2024: Salt Lake City, UT
Aug 24, 2024: Chicago, IL
(coming soon:)
May 10, 2025: Oklahoma City
July 12, 2025: Washington, D.C.
July 26, 2025: Las Vegas
August 2, 2025: San Diego
And here are links to workshops we’ll be holding later this summer:
August 22, 23, 24, 2025: Blanding, Utah
See all upcoming events here.
Here’s a copy of the most recent version of our presentation.
Check out this video about consolidating used fuel at an interim storage facility—created by our amazing team of nuclear engineering grad students at NC State University.
* Native Nuclear was previously organized under the name Tribal Consent-Based Coalition (TC-BC).
Resources
Canada’s Plan For the Future of its Spent Fuel
________________________
Lisa puts the social science front and center when talking about Canada’s plan for managing used nuclear fuel. There are so many lessons we can all learn about how the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), a nonprofit launched by the Canadian government in 2002, has engaged with all levels of the community to decide together on the best path forward for this multigenerational project.
Give it a listen 🎧 Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music
Spent Fuel Cask Pregnancy Photoshoot
————————————
Nuclear advocate Madi Hilly stands beside used nuclear fuel, while obviously pregnant, help to humanize and demonstrate that just because something sounds scary or may be emotionally triggering, that scary isn’t always the same as dangerous.
The massive containers holding used fuel are engineered to endure extreme conditions — from high-speed crashes and fires to water submersion — and must pass rigorous tests mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And they are placed in arrangements behind enough concrete to allow a pregnant woman to walk right up next to it. The resilience of this system demonstrates the nuclear industry’s commitment to managing radioactive materials for the long term in ways that don’t negatively impact human health or the nature around us.