Farmers testify against North Dakota Senate bill that may allow nuclear waste storage in the state

The North Dakota Senate passed a bill that would allow The North Dakota State Energy Research Center to pursue projects that may result in the exploration, storage, treatment or disposal of high level radioactive waste in North Dakota. Senate Bill 2159 passed the Senate 45-2 without much pushback, but three farmers and the Dakota Resource Council showed up to oppose the bill on Friday. Nuclear energy has low-carbon emissions but incurs high costs. Nuclear energy already accounts for 20% of U.S. electricity despite there only being around 50 nuclear power plants. North Dakota’s activity in nuclear energy was defined when news broke in 2016 that Pierce County was being looked at by the federal Energy Department for boreholes to dispose of spent nuclear fuel. Due to pushback, the drilling never happened. This contributes to a trend of difficulties for scientific research in nuclear energy, as the federal government has had a decades-long struggle with finding a permanent storage solution for nuclear waste.