Pending legislation from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) would require the Department of Energy to each year account for continuing and anticipated costs for management of the nation’s inventory of radioactive waste.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Barrasso chairs, is scheduled Wednesday to consider the discussion draft of the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020.
The legislation is primarily intended to sustain the United States’ existing nuclear power fleet and uranium market, along with promoting development of new nuclear technologies, in the face of global competition from China and Russia.
However, it also requires the secretary of energy to file yearly reports with Congress on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The initial filing would be due by Jan. 1, 2022.
Under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Energy Department was required by Jan. 21, 1998, to begin disposal of what is now a stockpile in the neighborhood of 100,000 metric tons of radioactive waste. It is spread around 121 locations in 39 states – mostly active and retired nuclear power plants, lawmakers on Capitol Hill noted last week.
The Energy Department’s 2008 license application at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., has languished for a decade without any funding.
After sealing “standard contracts” with DOE, nuclear utilities paid billions of dollars into the Nuclear Waste Fund that is supposed to pay for the disposal facility, with nothing to show for the money to date. They began suing the federal government after the deadline passed, and to date have won roughly $7.5 billion to compensate their ongoing expenses in managing the used fuel.
The Barrasso legislation would require the annual report to show how much the federal government has spent over the year and in total to holders of standard contracts for breach of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and financial damages. The department would also be required to account for spending intended to lower the amount of future outlays to those utilities.
More broadly, DOE would have to tell Congress how much it has expended in total for storage, management, and disposal of spent fuel and high-level waste, and life-cycle costs for that same work – up to and including waste generated through 2050.
