System Analysis Support of Consent-Based Siting Efforts - 23400

To better enable informed decision-making regarding the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, the Integrated Waste Management (IWM) program within the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) has been sponsoring the development and application of system analysis tools capable of analyzing various system options for the management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste. With these tools, integrated waste management system (IWMS) architecture analyses are being conducted to support the future deployment of a comprehensive nuclear waste management system that considers all major back-end aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle (i.e., transportation, storage, and disposal). System analyses and assessments typically use these modeling and simulation tools to investigate things like the implications of changes in various assumptions and parameters such as acceptance rates, receipt logic, facility capacities and capabilities, use of standardized canisters, and different assumed system operation start dates. Some example system analysis results have been published previously. With the passage of the consolidated appropriations acts for Fiscal Year 2021 and for Fiscal Year 2022, Congress provided funding and direction for the DOE to move forward under existing authority to identify a site for a federal interim storage facility using a consent-based approach. Consent-based siting is a phased, adaptive, and collaborative approach to siting a facility that focuses on the needs and concerns of people and communities. The approach will enable communities to participate in the siting process by working carefully through a series of phases and steps with the DOE (as the implementing organization). Each step and phase will help a community determine whether and how hosting a facility to manage SNF is aligned to the community's goals. By its nature, a consent-based siting process must be transparent, 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. System analysis research analysts interface with the DOE consent-based siting program for a federal interim storage facility and can perform preliminary system analyses as requested to support various aspects of the consent-based siting team's work. This paper provides an overview of the IWM program's system analysis activities that support the ongoing consent-based siting process. It is anticipated that decision-makers, planners, communities, and stakeholders may have questions during the consent-based siting process that are similar to questions that have been explored by system analysts previously regarding operation of a consolidated interim storage facility. Specifically, this paper discusses work that will inform consent-based siting efforts in the areas of community impacts, cost estimates, various SNF acceptance rates by a potential facility, potential consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) capacities and configurations, and the implications of a CISF on the overall waste management system. It is expected that system analysis will continue to be performed to support the consent-based siting process in the future. (authors)