The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (Board) will hold a workshop on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, to update its understanding of the lessons learned from the siting of radioactive waste management facilities, domestically and in other countries. The Board’s objectives for the workshop are to obtain information that may be applicable to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) efforts to develop one or more federal interim storage facilities for commercial spent nuclear fuel, using a consent-based siting process and to enhance the Board’s evaluation of the scientific and technical validity of DOE’s activities.
The workshop will be held in conjunction with the Board’s Summer Meeting, which will be held on Wednesday, August 30, 2023. The Board will issue a separate press release on that public meeting.
The hybrid (in-person/virtual) workshop will begin at 8:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) and is scheduled to adjourn at approximately 5:00 p.m. MDT. The Board workshop will be held at Snake River Event Center, 780 Lindsay Blvd, Idaho Falls, ID 83402, which is located at the Shilo Inns Idaho Falls. The event center telephone number is (208) 497-0611 and the hotel telephone number is (208) 523-0088. Details for joining and viewing the workshop will be available on the Board’s website approximately one week before the workshop.
The workshop will include introductory comments by the Board and DOE. Planned presentations include descriptions of the siting experiences regarding geologic repositories and a monitored retrievable storage facility in the United States and geologic repositories in Canada, Switzerland, and Sweden. These presentations will be followed by a facilitated panel discussion. DOE will describe how it is incorporating best practices and lessons learned from international and domestic siting efforts, and from environmental justice efforts in its consent- based siting activities. The workshop will close with a facilitated panel discussion on all the workshop topics.
After the workshop is adjourned there will be an open house to enable discussions among all participants and attendees.