State-Level Government Survey

Background

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Future (BRC) was chartered by the President to develop a new path forward to solving the issue of storing and disposing of commercial spent nuclear fuel and defense high-level waste in the United States. At the core of the BRC’s recommendations in their final report issued in January 2012, is the use of a consent-based process to site nuclear waste facilities – both storage and disposal. This consent-based approach stands in stark contrast to top-down approach from 70s and 80s to site a nuclear waste disposal that lead to the now defunct Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.

The BRC did not precisely define a consent-based process. They recognized that consent will not look the same to all interested parties and that flexibility in the application of consent-based siting was vital to ensuring that all parties were fairly treated.

To that end, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is attempting to further the discussion on consent-based siting by surveying state level officials regarding their thoughts on a consent-based process.

Responses to the survey will be collected, reviewed, and used to initiate the development of specific recommendations for a consent-based siting process.

Objective

Assess states’ government views of consent-based siting and what they believe would make a consent-based siting process successful in their state.