A California Democrat is taking another shot at legislation that would create the framework for a federal interim storage program for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel inventory.
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Ca.) reintroduced the Storage and Transportation of Residual and Excess (STORE) Nuclear Fuel Act this week, according to a Tuesday press release . The measure “allows for both active and decommissioned nuclear power plants, with priority given to decommissioned plants, to move spent nuclear fuel to interim storage facilities,” the statement said.
The current version of the bill, referred this week to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is more or less the same as the one Matsui introduced in June 2019. That iteration of the STORE Nuclear Fuel Act died in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The bill’s second wind comes after the co-owners of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in Matsui’s home state announced last week that they’re forming a stakeholders group to pressure the federal government into creating a “federal framework” for spent fuel disposal.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the latter now retired, tried multiple times to introduce a bill that would create a federal agency for handling nuclear waste. Their most recent attempt in 2019 never made it out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
In the absence of a federal interim storage facility, two commercial sites are currently in the licensing process. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting environmental reviews for Holtec International’s proposed site in southeastern New Mexico and Waste Control Specialists’ counterpart site in west Texas. Neither of these reviews will be done until the summer, the commission has said.
