• DOE Kicks Off Procurement Process for HALEU Fuels
• NRC Gives Green Light to CENTRUS to Start Making HALEU
• China’s TMSR Gets Operating Permit
• Holtec Asks Feds Again for Cash to Restart Palisades
• International Nuclear Bank Proposal to Raise Capital For Reactors Including SMRs
• DOE Awards $26 Million to Support Consent-Based Siting for Spent Nuclear Fuel

DOE Kicks Off Procurement Process for HALEU Fuels

• U.S. Department of Energy to Acquire High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium Material
• DOE Seeks Feedback on Two Draft Requests for Proposals for HALEU Supply Chain Services

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking public feedback on two draft requests for proposals (RFPs) to acquire high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). It is a crucial material needed to develop and deploy advanced reactors in the United States.

The first draft RFP focuses on acquiring services for production of HALEU material. The second focuses on deconversion activities to convert enriched uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) into metal or oxide forms used to fabricate fuels needed by various advanced reactor developers.

TerraPower and X-Energy, which are two reactors developers funded under DOE’s ARDP program, will require, respectively, uranium metal oxide and oxide forms, of HALEU. The two firms are building fuel fabrication plans in anticipation of receiving HALEU from DOE. Other developers of advanced reactors also have the supply of HALEU on their critical paths to commercializing their designs. CEOs of these firms say that getting HALEU fuel is their number one “keep awake at night” issue. This fact is not lost on  DOE.

“We must jump-start a commercial-scale, domestic supply chain for HALEU,” said Dr. Kathryn Huff, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. “Acquiring these services in the United States will reduce reliance on Russia, create American jobs, and support U.S. climate and energy security goals.”

DOE is looking for feedback on the draft solicitations, including the goals, scope, and selection criteria. DOE will use that feedback to inform the final RFPs to be issued later this year. The draft RFPs are open for public comment until July 6th. Ask for comment on a draft RFP is an extra step that DOE is taking to avoid hiccups in the procurement process when the actionable RFP is issued by the agency.

DOE projects that more than 40 metric tons of HALEU could be needed before the end of the decade, with additional amounts required each year, to deploy a new fleet of advanced reactors in a timeframe that supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.

HALEU is an advanced nuclear fuel required for most of the next-generation reactor designs currently under development. Nine of the ten advanced reactor designs selected for funding under the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, including the two demonstration reactors, will rely on HALEU, as will the first non-light water reactor to enter licensing review by the NRC.

The HALEU Availability Program was authorized by the Energy Act of 2020 and responds to congressional direction to ensure HALEU fuel is available to support civilian domestic research, development, demonstration, and commercial use. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided $700 million to the HALEU Availability Program.

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NRC Gives Green Light to CENTRUS to Start Making HALEU

• Centrus Completes Operational Readiness Review for HALEU Production and Receives NRC Authorization to Introduce Uranium Into Centrifuge Cascade

Centrus Energy Corp (NYSE American: LEU) announced that it has successfully completed its operational readiness reviews with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and received NRC approval to possess uranium at the Piketon, Ohio site and introduce uranium into the cascade of 16 centrifuges Centrus has constructed.

Centrus began construction of a cascade of centrifuges in 2019 under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.

In 2022, Centrus secured a competitively-awarded follow-on contract to finish construction, complete final regulatory steps, bring the cascade into operation, and produce HALEU for the Department’s use.

But there is still a long way to go. The Centrus centrifuges will only produce enriched uranium in a gas form, which is uranium hexafluoride (UF6). The nation’s sole uranium conversion plant in Illinois has to be restarted and there are several fuel fabrication plants being built by advanced reactor developers to meet their specific needs and to sell HALEU fuels in other forms to other customers in the US and for export.

In December 2022 ConverDyn has received a $14 million award for uranium conversion services from the US Department of Energy under its $75 million program to create a domestic uranium reserve to boost energy security. ConverDyn is the marketing arm of conversion services from Honeywell International’s Metropolis Works plant in Illinois, the sole such plant in the US. In March 2020 the NRC renewed the license of the facility to operate for the next 40 years. (ML20085H555)

In terms of uranium supply for the Centrus Plant, according to a January 2023 report by S&P Global, five US uranium producers, enCore Energy, Energy Fuels, Peninsula Energy, Uranium Energy Corp. and Ur-Energy announced in December contracts to supply over 800,000 lb U3O8 to the DOE under the program at prices ranging between $59.50/lb and $70.50/lb.

The operational readiness reviews were required under Centrus’ NRC license, which was successfully amended in 2021 to make the Piketon site the only NRC-licensed HALEU production facility.  Separately, two reactor developers (X-Energy and TerraPower) funded under DOE’s ARDP effort are developing HALEU fuel fabrication plants, which will require enriched uranium to produce TRISO fuel and uranium metal fuel for their respective reactors.

Construction of the cascade and most of the support systems is now complete, and Centrus has also finished initial testing of these systems. The next steps are for Centrus to complete construction of the on-site HALEU storage area and conduct final testing activities prior to operation, with initial HALEU production set to begin by the end of this year.

DOE’s Glacial Pace in Producing HALEU

Centrus told the New York Times June 16th that at the current rate of DOE investment in HALEU fuel production  that it will take at least a decade, or until the early 2030s, to produce HALEU fuel in sufficient volume to allow the US to stop buying it from Russia.

Image: World Nuclear Association

The NYT report included this statement in its report about the long time it will take to ramp up HALEU supplies.

“It’s inexplicable that over a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration does not appear to have a plan to end this dependence,” said James Krellenstein, the director of GHS Climate, a clean energy consulting firm that recently issued a white paper on the subject. “We could eliminate almost all of America’s dependence on Russian enrichment by finishing the centrifuge plant in Ohio.”

TerraPower has had to delay the opening of its nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, WY, by at least two years, in part because it has pledged to not use Russian enriched uranium.

According to the NYT, without U.S. competition in enrichment and next-generation reactors, officials at TerraPower and Centrus say the gap between Washington and its rivals will only widen as Russia and China in particular race ahead and win long-term nuclear contracts with countries the United States also seeks to court.

Nevertheless, this is a critical milestone toward first-of-a-kind production of High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU). It means that Centrus remains on track to begin production of the first small quantitates by the end of 2023.

What It Will Take to Close the Fuel Gap

Centrus said in a press statement a full-scale HALEU cascade, consisting of 120 individual centrifuge machines, with a combined capacity of approximately 6,000 kilograms of HALEU per year (6 MTU/year), could be brought online within about 42 months of securing the funding to do so.

Centrus has the capability to add an additional cascade every six months after that. Such an expansion would mobilize hundreds of union workers in Ohio to build and operate the plant and support thousands of direct and indirect jobs across a 100 percent domestic manufacturing supply chain.

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China’s TMSR Gets Operating Permit

(WNN) The Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been granted an operating license for the experimental TMSR-LF1 thorium-powered molten-salt reactor, located in  Wuwei city, Gansu province.

Image: Thorium molten salt reactor nuclear energy system (TMSR)
Zhimin Dai – Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), Shanghai, China

“The thorium-fueled molten salt experimental reactor operation application and related technical documents were reviewed, and it was considered that the application met the relevant safety requirements, and it was decided to issue the 2 MWt liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor an operating license,” the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said in a June 7th statement.

Construction of the TMSR-LF1 reactor began in September 2018 and was scheduled to be completed in 2024. However, it was reportedly completed in August 2021 after work was accelerated.

The thorium molten salt reactor nuclear energy system (TMSR) is designed for thorium-based nuclear energy utilization and hybrid nuclear energy application, based on a liquid-fueled thorium molten salt reactor (TMSR-LF) and a solid-fueled thorium molten salt reactor (TMSR-SF).

The TMSR-LF1 will use fuel enriched to under 20% U-235, have a thorium inventory of about 50 kg and conversion ratio of about 0.1. A fertile blanket of lithium-beryllium fluoride (FLiBe) with 99.95% Li-7 will be used, and fuel as UF4.

The liquid fuel design is descended from the 1960s Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA. In 2012 the Department of Energy inked a collaboration effort with China on thorium fueled molten salt reactors. (Briefing on the Oak Ridge / China collaboration effort (PDF file 48 pages)

The project is expected to start on a batch basis with some online refueling and removal of gaseous fission products. The reactor will discharge all fuel salt after 5-8 years for reprocessing and separation of fission products and minor actinides for storage. It will proceed to a continuous process of recycling salt, uranium and thorium, with online separation of fission products and minor actinides. The reactor will work up from about 20% thorium fission to about 80%.

If the TMSR-LF1 proves successful, China plans to build a reactor with a capacity of 373 MWt by 2030. China claims to have the world’s largest national effort on thorium fueled MSR reactor designs and plans to assert global intellectual property rights on the technology. If the TMSR-LF1 proves successful, China plans to build a reactor with a capacity of 373 MWt by 2030.  (Reference: Molten Salt Reactors – WNA)

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Holtec Asks Feds Again for Cash to Restart Palisades

• Company wants $1 billion in federal loans and state funding to bring reactor back online

(NucNet) Holtec, the owner of the shut-down Palisades nuclear power station in  Michigan, is hopeful that the federal government will approve approximately $1 billion to complement state funds from Michigan to restart the single-unit facility. Holtec is also applying to the state of Michigan for support in the form of a $300 million grant to supplement the federal funds.

Palisades, located on the shore of Lake Michigan in Covert Township, about 70 miles southwest of Grand Rapid, MI, began commercial operation in 1971. The 805-MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) unit was shut down in May 2022 and bought a few weeks later by Holtec, which as its main business is a supplier of equipment to the energy industry.

Holtec’s plan was to tap the reactor’s decommissioning fund to pay it to close the reactor and repurpose the site. In recent years Holtec has purchased several reactors slated for decommissioning because the plant’s decommissioning funds are a sure thing in terms of getting paid for a process that can take decades. Also, as Holtec manufactures casks for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel, these projects are right up its alley.

The Biden administration’s $6 billion of aid for upgrading nuclear facilities in the US led the company to reconsider its plans for Palisades. The plant’s recent closure makes it eligible for the funds, which are supposed to go towards extending the working life of currently-functioning reactors. No significant steps have been taken to dismantle the plant since it was shut down.

This is Holtec’s second attempt to secure public funding to restart Palisades. It failed to qualify for a different federal program in November 2022. Instead, DOE funded the twin reactors at the Diablo Canyon site in California.

If successful in arranging the financing, Holtec’s plan would make Palisades the first power plant in the US to resume operation after being shut down. The plant used to produce about 5% of Michigan’s electricity supply.

However, to get there Holtec will have to convince the NRC to relicense the plant, find a utility operator for it, and customers for its electricity.

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USNC Delivers TRISO Fuel to NASA

• Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) announced the successful delivery of nuclear fuel to NASA’s Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion program.

This marks the first delivery by industry of uranium nitride coated particle fuel to the agency and demonstrates the flexibility, precision, and value of USNC’s Pilot Fuel Manufacturing Facility (PFM). The fuel particles purchased were small-diameter uranium nitride kernels with a tri-structural zirconium carbide outer coating surrounding pyrolytic carbon and porous carbon buffer layers. It is form of TRISO fuel.

Past attempts by industry to leverage uranium nitride fuel without tri-structural coatings resulted in failure at temperatures well below predicted or desired performance levels. USNC is the first and the only company to deliver on this NASA solicitation. USNC set up a single line of production-scale equipment within 15 months. The PFM facility holds a radioactive material license and is located on the former K-25 site at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

NASA said it is optimistic that this more robust fuel form will unlock higher performance regions at lower cost for future space nuclear efforts.

Uranium nitride is a candidate particle fuel for high performance nuclear reactors due to its much higher thermal stability and higher uranium density than other fuels.

It has long been explored for future terrestrial and space reactor applications. The flexibility of PFM allows it to produce a full range of candidate particle fuels, including UC, UN, and UCO, along with a variety of coatings, including silicon and zirconium carbides.

“It’s great to see industry stepping up with investment in infrastructure that delivers,” said Jason Turpin, Space Nuclear Propulsion Program Manager for NASA.

“Advanced capabilities like the Pilot Fuel Manufacturing facility mean more tools in the NTP toolbox and that provides a shorter and clearer path to success.”

PFM will support USNC in the near term across a number of areas including manufacture of Qualification Fuel test articles for its Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR). It also serves to hone the production-scale equipment and support the licensing activities for the recently announced planned Joint Venture with Framatome for large scale production of TRISO-based fuels.

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International Nuclear Bank Proposal to Raise Capital For Nuclear Reactors Including SMRs

• Experts planning to launch multilateral body that could help deployment of plants ‘at unprecedented pace’

(NucNet) According to a team of international experts calling for the creation of a new multilateral bank to support nuclear new-build, existing financing mechanisms for nuclear energy are tailor-made and not reliable enough to enable a global expansion of nuclear power capacities.

In a relatively short period of time, massive amounts of capital will be required for the multiple hundreds of gigawatts of nuclear power capacity globally to meet the world’s ambitious net-zero and sustainability goals,

Daniel Dean, former investment banker and chairman of the advisory board preparing the project, based in Vienna, says the proposed International Bank for Nuclear Infrastructure (IBNI) would serve as a multilateral bank that would facilitate the mobilization of the trillions of dollars of private and public capital into the nuclear sector over the next decades. It would providing financing, support and expertise to help scale up nuclear power at “a rapid and unprecedented pace.”

Dean told NucNet that global financial markets are not investing and lending in the nuclear sector as they are in nearly every other asset class. The goal of IBNI will be to work with governments and market actors across project lifecycles to meet the bankability and investability requirements of global financial markets.

Helping projects define their conditions for economic equilibrium early on will build investor confidence and enable the “serialization of repeatable and successful nuclear projects delivered on time and within budget under a similar set of standards across borders.”

“For example, IBNI would help drive the nuclear sector toward a de-risked profile where an IBNI-qualified nuclear sector financing would look very similar to any other investment class a pension or insurance fund would readily put their money in today.”

“The bank would progressively make that happen [de-risking] with the appropriate frameworks, transaction structures, standards and criteria. IBNI would enable the increasing crowding-in of cost-efficient market and commercial capital into the nuclear space and enable the demonstration of investable projects that are repeatable and successful across borders.”

Dean added, “This is the key to developing market confidence in the nuclear sector, and IBNI would serve in the role as that patient and long-term capital provider and leader that will be ideally situated to enable confidence.”

Dean said that multilateral banks are chartered and partly financed by a coalition of countries with similarly aligned long-term global policy goals, such as the rebuilding of Eastern European market economies (EBRD) or eradication of poverty (the World Bank). IBNI’s mission will be far simpler, to help nuclear energy fulfil its needed role as a clean, secure, safe and affordable source of energy in order to attain 2050 net zero goals in a sustainable manner.

Chartering the IBNI

IBNI would need to be set up by a multinational treaty signed amongst its member countries pulling financial resources together to support the rapid scaling of the nuclear sector.

“Unlike the World Bank for example, IBNI will be an infrastructure bank focused solely on nuclear power. It would provide financing and support to economically advanced through developing countries,” said Milton Caplan, IBNI’s advisory board representative from Canada.

Many Financial Institutions ‘Eye Nuclear With Distrust’

According to Caplan, many financial institutions eye nuclear projects with distrust because of factors like project scale, complexity, large capital needs and recent records of delays and cost overruns.

“Many of these financial institutions start off somewhat negative on nuclear projects and one needs to work hard to just to pull them to neutral,” said Caplan.

“So, just think about if you had a bank which started understanding that nuclear can be a good investment, and then had the expertise to assess each project on its own merits?”

One typical role of a multilateral financing institution is in conducting a policy dialogue early in the process of preparing large projects, said Milko Kovachev, former infrastructure section head at the International Atomic Energy Agency and IBNI advisory board member in Bulgaria.

“For most cases this is not covered by any existing institutions today when it comes to nuclear power,” said Kovachev, “IBNI will be there to take on that challenge.”

How IBNI Would Be Capitalized

IBNI would be capitalized through a combination of member country governmental, financial markets and private resources. It will have two major financing conduits – a commercial operations arm which would require an estimated $50bn (€46.6bn) of initial government shareholder capital and a separate donor-funded operations arm.

Of the $50 billion, approximately $25 billion would need to be paid up-front allocated from some 30 shareholder member countries, while the donor fund would require an estimated $5 billion of government capital from a subset of seven or more member countries.

David Stearns, a UK-based bank financier on the IBNI advisory board, said the idea behind the bank is not to duplicate or replace state guarantees and other forms of pre-existing support in nuclear projects, but to effectively optimize the financing-related elements of a nuclear project.

“The idea of IBNI is that we maximize public sector value for money with a triple bottom line.

• First, IBNI must be non-loss-making in order to be sustainable.
• Second, IBNI must provide additionality, focusing on bridging the gaps between public and private capital.
• Third, IBNI will crowd in private investment through its quality label and the trust financiers can put in the Bank,” said Stearns.

“The bank needs to keep an AAA credit rating, which means it will be an extremely conservative bank, actually.”

IBNI planning documents show that the bank will be aiming to provide both early and long-term financing and support to projects including technology, country and vendor-neutral new-build, operating life extensions and reactor restarts, nuclear fuel cycle, decommissioning and restructuring of existing projects. The bank will finance and support production and supply chain projects as well as nuclear infrastructure.

Early-stage and mature projects, program and industries would be supported by IBNI through a combination of both donor and commercial funding, including financing program ranging from competitive grants, concessionary and commercial financing guarantees, climate and sustainability impact financing and equity stake participation.

Bank Would Support SMRs, Advanced Reactors and Fusion Technologies

IBNI is also planning to support emerging advanced and modular reactor, fusion and Generation IV technologies, through their commercialization and scaling, by making available a combination of both donor and commercial operations programs.

Kovachev said IBNI can be the institution to cover the serial or fleet deployment of small modular reactors, projects which have long lead times. “No institution is supporting serial deployment of this scale at the moment, and IBNI can come as the missing link in that niche,” he said.

The concept of IBNI was born in 2021 out of discussions with parties including many Intentional Atomic Energy Agency member states which are trying to develop new nuclear programs and developed states trying to finance nuclear projects and most efficiently scale up their nuclear sectors.

The immediate pathway forward includes the establishment of a non-governmental advisory organization (NGO) that would guide governments and other key stakeholders on the optimal ‘best international practices’ in respect to the near-term implementation of the bank.

It is envisaged that a coalition of about 30 to 50 member countries will come together to establish the bank, said the IBNI team. The NGO is expected to be set up this summer, and will take an additional 18 to 24 months to establish and operationalize the bank.

Daniel Dean said that looking ahead, a key initial milestone to be facilitated by the NGO will be to bring a core group of countries together to sign a joint declaration or memorandum of understanding prior to the COP 28 climate conference in Dubai in December. Such announcement could ideally be made during COP 28 as the conference can be the global ‘launching pad forum’ to bring together a larger coalition of supportive countries.

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DOE Awards $26 Million to Support Consent-Based Siting for Spent Nuclear Fuel

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $26 million in funding for groups of university, nonprofit, and private-sector partners that will work with communities interested in DOE’s community-centered approach to storing and disposing of spent nuclear fuel, a process known as consent-based siting.

DOE, along with these consortia, will continue working with communities to ensure transparency and local support. At the same time, DOE is also advancing research and development for the long-term disposition of the fuel used to create nuclear power, a critical component of reaching President Biden’s goals of a 100% clean electric grid by 2035 and a net-zero economy by 2050.

“It is vital that, as DOE works to be good stewards of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, we do right by communities in the siting process and includes them in the decision-making at the outset,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.

“This funding will help DOE learn from and involve communities across the country in the consent-based siting process, answer questions and concerns, and develop an understanding so that we are good neighbors even before moving in.”

Consent-based siting is an approach to siting facilities that focuses on the needs and concerns of people and communities and centers equity and environmental justice. Communities participate in the process by working through a series of phases and steps with the Department, helping them determine whether and how hosting a facility to manage spent nuclear fuel is aligned to their goals. The process consists of three stages: planning and capacity building, site screening and assessment, and negotiation and implementation.

DOE is currently in the first stage and, consistent with that, is not currently soliciting volunteer communities to host Federal consolidated interim storage facilities as part of this funding opportunity.

DOE competitively selected 13 geographically and institutionally diverse awardees—representing 12 states and the District of Columbia—who will engage with additional partners and communities, expanding the impact of these awards and furthering the conversation around consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Awardees will represent a consent-based siting consortium, and they will collectively help the Department facilitate engagement activities and dialogue. They will each lead inclusive community and stakeholder engagement efforts, elicit public feedback to refine the Department’s consent-based siting process, and develop strategies that support mutual learning. Throughout this process, DOE and the consent-based siting consortia will work together to build equity and environmental justice principles into the engagement processes.

List of Project Teams

The project teams will each receive about $2 million and represent diverse organizations, a makeup that DOE hopes will enable a broad spectrum of perspectives and approaches. The project teams that will receive awards are:

• American Nuclear Society (IL) as the lead, with South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation (SC), Northern Arizona University (AZ), University of New Mexico (NM), and South Carolina State University (SC) as partners.
  Arizona State University (AZ)
• Boise State University (ID) as the lead, with the National Tribal Energy Association, Arizona State (AZ), Colorado State (CO), Idaho State (ID), Montana State (MT), University of Idaho (ID), University of Wyoming (WY), and University of Michigan (MI) as partners.
• Clemson University (SC) as the lead, with South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation (SC) as partner.
• Energy Communities Alliance (DC) as the lead, with Environmental Council of the States (DC), DOE’s State and Tribal Government Working Group, National Association of Attorneys General (DC), National Conference of State Legislatures (DC), and National Governors Association (DC) as partners.
• Good Energy Collective (CA) as the lead, with the University of Notre Dame (IN) as partner.
• Holtec International (NJ) as the lead, with University of Florida (FL), McMahon Communications (MA), Agenda Global (DC), American Nuclear Society (IL), and Nuclear Energy Institute (DC) as partners.
• Keystone Policy Center (CO) as the lead, with Social and Environmental Research Institute, GDFWatch (UK), and the National Association of Regional Councils (DC) as partners.
• Missouri University of Science & Technology (MO) as the lead, with University of Missouri – Columbia (MO), University of Illinois (IL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA), University of Nevada (NV), Taylor Geospatial Institute (MO), and St. Louis University (MO) as partners.
• North Carolina State University (NC) as the lead, with the yak tit?u tit?u yak tilhini Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region (CA), Mothers for Nuclear (CA), and the Tribal Consent Based Coalition – Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (CA) as partners.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) as the lead, with Schenectady Foundation (NY) and Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Indians (WI) as partners.
• Southwest Research Institute (TX) as the lead, with Deep Isolation (CA), Westra Consulting (NE), Community Transition Planning (MI), and Prairie Island Indian Community Tribal Nation (MN) as partners.
• Vanderbilt University (TN) as the lead, with Rutgers University (NJ) and Oregon State University (OR) as partners.

The announcement follows DOE’s first update to the Consent-Based Siting Process for Federal Consolidated Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel in April.

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