Nuclear Spent Fuel Strategies

The Mansfield Foundation convened a workshop on “Aligning Security Concerns and Spent Fuel Strategies,” involving 18 engineers and political scientists from Korea, Japan, and the United States.  The workshop, held in Zurich, Switzerland from July 21-24, addressed the connections between nuclear energy policy decisions and the three countries’ shared regional security concerns.  Over the course of the workshop, participants visited two Swiss nuclear energy sites that demonstrate some of the options and considerations relevant to spent fuel management in the U.S., Japan, and Korea: the ZWILAG centralized interim spent fuel storage facility and the Grimsel Test Site (where multinational teams are conducting tests on geological storage of nuclear waste).  The Mansfield Foundation will convene the group for a second workshop this coming December before releasing policy recommendations early in 2019.  Mansfield Foundation President & CEO Frank Jannuzi and Director of Programs and Development Ryan Shaffer participated in the workshop, as did Mansfield Foundation Distinguished Fellow Tom Countryman.  The project is funded by the MacArthur Foundation.