The April 2023 Consent-Based Siting Process Report is a policy roadmap issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It explains how the federal government plans to identify locations for temporary (interim) nuclear waste storage facilities nationwide.
The report does not create new law, but it interprets and implements existing federal authority, especially the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which makes DOE responsible for managing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. It outlines how DOE intends to carry out that duty under recent congressional funding directives (2021–2023 appropriations acts) that instruct the agency to pursue interim storage using a “consent-based” approach.
