Abstract: Spent nuclear fuel management in the United States is a national issue of growing importance. Past efforts to site facilities to manage these materials have been met with formidable societal challenges. Recent efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy to find a sustainable solution for this problem has hinged on the principles of consent-based siting. Consent-based siting policies are complex, with many open questions about how to initiate the process, how to define and register consent, when consent can be withdrawn, and the role of trust in the different actors involved. This presentation will utilize data from a long-term nationally representative survey to highlight public views on these critical questions.

Biography: Kuhika Gupta is the Associate Director of Energy and Security at the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA). Her research focuses on the policy process and how social, political, and institutional factors influence policymaking. She studies multiple policy domains including energy policy, environmental policy, and weather and climate policy. She has spent over a decade studying public perceptions regarding nuclear energy as well as the factors that influence nuclear facility siting from a global comparative perspective. She has led and managed several federally funded projects studying the public views about nuclear energy using multiple data streams including surveys and social media data. Her research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals including Energy Policy, Policy Studies Journal, Nature-Climate Change, and Review of Policy Research.