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Transition & Resilience

A newsletter from the Nuclear Communities TA program

Friday, April 1, 2022

Mark your calendar! The first-ever virtual Nuclear Communities Forum will bring together communities from across the country for a series of engaging discussions around the various impacts that host communities and regions experience when a local nuclear facility shuts down. Speakers will share insights from the field on a wide range of socioeconomic impacts of closure; the nuts and bolts of the decommissioning process; prioritizing meaningful, consistent community engagement in planning; and the importance of early planning for a successful economic transition.

More program details coming soon.

Stay tuned for an email with information on the program and instructions to register for the event soon. *This event is free of charge and open to the public.

Have you heard about our Community of Practice?

The CoP is meant to connect nuclear host communities around ideas, experiences, and resources that contribute to the long-term resilience of their communities and regions. If you serve as a local leader, stakeholder or economic development practitioner for a nuclear host community or region and would like to be invited to join the conversation, reach out to Martina Guglielmone at mguglielmone@smartgrowthamerica

More Upcoming Opportunities

• [Request for information] DOE releases RFI for consent-based siting: The Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE) is requesting input on a consent-based siting process to identify sites to store spent nuclear fuel across the country, and “to further develop DOE’s waste management strategy in an equitable way.” 

• [Resource] Funding opportunities for nuclear host communities: The IWG on Coal & Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization identified up to $38 billion in existing federal funding that can be accessed by energy communities –including nuclear host communities– for infrastructure, environmental remediation, union job creation, and community revitalization efforts. 

• [Resource] Federal resources for state and local economic development: Congress has authorized over 130 economic development programs administered by over 20 departments and agencies. These programs support efforts to improve job opportunities, tax bases, individual or community wealth, and quality of life measures; contribute to economic growth; create reinforcing industrial clusters; and reduce economic inequality.

Reads and Resources

• [Read] ​​Nuclear Power 101: How it works, how safe it is, and, ultimately, how its costs outweigh its benefits. National Resources Defense Council.

• [Read] Nuclear power concerns outlast decommissioning: With Palisades and other plants in the Great Lakes region scheduled to shut down in the coming decades, more people are considering the long-term impacts of this energy source. Mining Journal.

• [Read] Mapping county-level exposure and vulnerability to the US energy transition: This working paper examines where economic changes associated with the US energy transition are concentrated, as well as which communities are most vulnerable to this transition. Resources for the Future.

• [Read] Readout of investment roundtable hosted by the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization: Read the White House’s brief on an IWG roundtable focused on new investment vehicles to support economic development in energy communities. The White House.

• [Read] IWG’s end-of-year report: The IWG released an end of year report highlighting how the Administration’s administrative and legislative actions have bolstered economic activity in energy communities. IWG on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization.

• [Report] NRC staff issues findings from 2021 decommissioning status reports: The NRC recently issued findings from a review of the 2021 decommissioning funding status (DFS) reports submitted by power reactor in decommissioning licensees. A total of $71.1 billion has accumulated in NDTs for operating power reactors and $12.4 billion remained in the NDTs for those reactors in decommissioning as of December 31, 2021. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

• [Academic research] The relationship between public acceptance of nuclear power generation and spent nuclear fuel reuse: Implications for promotion of spent nuclear fuel reuse and public engagement. Published by the Nuclear Engineering and Technology journal.

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