Why It Matters

The Trump administration is betting that the nuclear waste problem can solve itself. On September 15, a House subcommittee heard testimony on the Department of Energy's Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses (NLIC), which is a plan to invite willing states to host facilities where spent fuel gets stored, recycled, and disposed of in exchange for economic development benefits. The U.S. has accumulated roughly 90,000 metric tons of spent fuel with no permanent disposal solution, while the administration pushes reprocessing and recycling as alternatives to the long-stalled Yucca Mountain repository.

The Big Picture

Congress is in an impasse over a permanent solution for commercial spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. has paid utilities more than $10 billion in damages for failing to accept spent fuel starting in 1998, and the Nuclear Waste Fund has collected over $47 billion from ratepayers since 1983 with nothing to show for it.

The Trump administration's May 2025 executive orders directed the DOE to develop a comprehensive spent fuel strategy emphasizing reprocessing and recycling. The NLIC initiative emerged as the vehicle: co-locating fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing, and waste disposition at voluntary federal-state partnerships.

The Nuclear REFUEL Act, which streamlines licensing for reprocessing facilities, passed committee in early September.

On July 28, DOE announced Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah as finalists for hosting Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, and by September 16, a sixth state, West Virginia, had also signed an MOU.

What They're Saying

The witnesses split between optimism about reprocessing and caution about siting. Theodore Garrish from the Department of Energy testified at the hearing.

Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, framed the moment as proving nuclear can scale: "The question before us is not whether we can build. It's clear—we're starting."

Stacey Paradis testified on behalf of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, and electric ratepayers under the law are responsible for paying for the ultimate disposal of nuclear waste.

Jared des Rosiers, representing closed reactor sites like Maine Yankee, which has held spent fuel on-site for over 20 years after decommissioning, pressed for urgent action on the roughly 14 stranded sites nationwide.

Greg White of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, representing communities in affected states, called for an integrated approach spanning interim storage, transportation, reprocessing, and permanent disposal.

Political Stakes

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL-14) is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy. She noted the administration dismissed seven of eight Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board commissioners and cited rising electricity costs, which went up 15 percent in 18 months, to argue the focus should be renewable energy, not new nuclear infrastructure. She also pointed out the subcommittee held only one hearing in 21 weeks.

Six states have stepped up to negotiate how to develop in partnership with DOE nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses. Rep. Brett Guthrie emphasized that packaging waste disposal within economic development has drawn states forward voluntarily. The U.S. nuclear fleet generates approximately 20% of the nation's electricity and over 50% of its carbon-free electricity.

Yes, But

Any efforts to find new sites for long-term nuclear waste disposal require congressional approval. The plan also depends on reprocessing technology the U.S. currently lacks commercial capacity to deploy, France, Japan, and Russia operate reprocessing programs, but America doesn't. And the DOE faces a staffing crisis: over 500 professional staff have departed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since January 2025, with only about 65 replacements hired, a roughly 15 percent net decline that could slow permitting and oversight.

What's Next

Binding host agreements for hosting Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses are expected by October. The contractual methodology for the campuses is due by mid-December.

Meanwhile, the administration is targeting 400 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050, up from roughly 100 gigawatts today, a target that hinges on solving the waste problem that has blocked progress for three decades.

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