Funds from this grant support efforts by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to build broad-based support from multiple stakeholder groups on options to address the nation’s nuclear waste challenges. To guide the overall effort, BPC will convene a high-level advisory council to provide project direction and serve as representatives when meeting with congressional and executive branch leadership. The three-to-five-member advisory council will be composed primarily of former members of the Secretary of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future and include individuals that span industry, nonproliferation, and environmental perspectives. Under the leadership of the advisory board, BPC will assess the level of support for and opposition to implementing the various proposals on nuclear waste management and disposal by hosting three full-day regional workshops, one in Washington and two elsewhere, to engage policymakers and stakeholders on the issues surrounding nuclear waste. Each workshop will begin with a brief stage-setting presentation by experts on the substance and status of the various proposals and then move to a structured discussion. Throughout the project, the BPC project team will also stand ready and, if requested, will assist legislators, regulators, and policy developers to better understand both technical and policy issues and stakeholders’ views.The project has been carefully designed to stay well clear of endorsing any particular policy proposal.

Funds from this grant support a collaboration between Alan Krupnick and colleagues at Resources for the Future (RFF), and a team from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), to develop suggested guidelines on effective ways to address high-priority pathways associated with shale gas development. Starting with a list of 15 risk pathways all identified as high priority by a diverse selection of knowledgeable industry insiders, environmentalists, and regulators, RFF will collect and integrate information on risks, mitigation costs, regulation, and best practices for each pathway, culminating in a cost-benefit and modeling analysis of regulatory options for addressing the least controversial, most pressing risks associated with shale gas extraction. EDF will then involve a small group of motivated leaders from industry, nongovernmental organizations, regulatory bodies, and academia in a sustained attempt to build a consensus around guidelines for risk mitigation in shale gas development that will aim at improving both government regulation and industry practices. Additional grant funds support outreach and educational efforts, including outreach through websites, newsletters, blogs, popular articles, discussion papers, conference presentations, and peer-reviewed articles.

This grant supports the work of Dr. Kenneth Medlock at Rice University to understand how new and proposed federal and local regulations will influence natural gas resource development and pricing in the United States. Medlock will identify the range of federal, state, and local policy options being proposed by specific stakeholders, legislators, and special interest groups regarding shale gas production in the United States. He will then specify several potential regulatory scenarios for analysis. Using the Rice World Gas Trade Model, he will then quantify the impact of proposed changes in regulation and taxation on the pace and scope of natural gas resource development and on the price of natural gas in different regions of the world. This analysis will allow him to highlight the regional and global market implications and the international geopolitical implications of the potential policies. Grant funds will support an initial exploratory workshop to identify relevant policies; analysis and modelling; an interim workshop; and a major capstone conference once his analysis is completed. Written products will include two to three academic papers, six to eight economic modeling projections with regional focus, a study monograph, and a policy white paper.

Since 2009, with support from the Sloan and Hewlett Foundation’s, the Arius Association has been working to promote regional nuclear waste repositories outside of Europe. If such repositories could be brought into existence, they would result in the centralized disposal of dangerous nuclear wastes in a manner that would be more cost-effective, safe, and secure (from both a nonproliferation and dirty bomb perspective) than if each country with a small nuclear power program had responsibility for disposing of its own high-level nuclear waste. Funds from this grant provide support for Arius’ continued work on this issue, including an expansion of the scope of their efforts to include discussion of regional repositories for radioactive wastes from universities, hospitals, and industry. Supported activities over the next two years include a series of workshops in Arab regions and in Asia; the production of a draft constitution and work program for a regional nuclear repository organization; development of an IAEA report on multinational nuclear waste repositories; and a series of high-level papers aimed at specialists and policymakers.