A U.S. Senate committee convened on September 23 to examine the country's approach to managing nuclear waste, with particular attention to the Department of Energy's Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses program. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works heard testimony on whether existing federal policy is keeping pace with a nuclear sector that is expanding after decades of stagnation.
Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito said the original Nuclear Waste Policy Act has fallen short of its intended goals, and lawmakers from both parties voiced agreement that a permanent disposal solution is needed for the roughly 90,000 metric tons of spent fuel currently stored at reactor sites nationwide. Senator Lisa Alsobrooks said a permanent solution is essential if nuclear deployment is to continue with public credibility.
Three witnesses testified before the panel: Lake Barrett, who chairs the American Nuclear Society's Nuclear Waste Policy Task Force, Katrina McMurrian of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, and University of Wisconsin-Madison nuclear engineering professor Kathryn Huff. Discussion centered on funding structures, community consent requirements, and how regulations written for the long-shelved Yucca Mountain site would need to be adapted for any alternative location.
Witnesses also raised fuel recycling as a complementary strategy alongside permanent geologic disposal, and stressed that a collaborative, consent-based process for selecting a site would be necessary to avoid repeating the conflicts that stalled Yucca Mountain for decades.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire -- https://www.ans.org/news/2026-09-24/article-8432/senate-committee-reviews-nlic-program-nuclear-waste-policy/