Congressmen have 11th-hour bipartisan bill for spent fuel recycling

Reps. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Scott Peters (D-Calif.) last week introduced a bill that they said would “streamline” licensing requirements for nuclear fuel recycling facilities.

Latta, the Republican, took the lead on the bill, announcing the filing Dec. 6 in a press release that linked to the text of what he has titled the Nuclear REFUEL Act.

In the waning days of the 118th Congress, in which even the usually bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act has become enmeshed in culture-war politics and lawmakers must still pass a stopgap budget to prevent a government shutdown, prospects for passage appeared slim for the bill, which was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

That might leave the Nuclear REFUEL Act on the margins in the waning days of the 118th Congress, but the bill appears ticketed for a refiling in the 119th Congress, which begins Jan. 3: a spokesperson for Peters said the California congressman planned to cosponsor the bill again in the next session.

If passed, the Nuclear REFUEL Act would, among other things, require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license fuel recycling facilities only under Part 70 of its regulations.

In their press release last week, Latta and Peters said the Part 70 licensing process, as opposed to Part 50 process used for reactors, is “a single-step licensing process and would significantly streamline the licensing requirements for fuel recycling facilities which will revitalize domestic investment in nuclear energy.”

Although the U.S. has not reprocessed spent fuel for decades, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission abandoned a reprocessing rule for lack of interest in 2021, there is often support in Congress for doing so.

In July, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said Congress should take on reprocessing after the bipartisan success of the nuclear reforms in this summer’s ADVANCE Act.

Progressive leading light Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) even probed the issue last year on Instagram, where her followers number in the millions.