A bill introduced in Congress Tuesday would create a task force to evaluate a loophole in federal law that the measure’s sponsors say would enable consent-based siting for a federal nuclear waste storage facility, according to a press release.
If it became law, the “Nuclear Waste Task Force Act,” unveiled Tuesday in the House by Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and in the Senate by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), would establish an interdisciplinary team to “consider the implications of amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1954” to remove a loophole exempting nuclear waste from environmental law, according to a Tuesday press release.
According to a 2020 Congressional report, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) leaves radioactive waste outside of environmental regulation. The task force created under Levin and Markey’s bill would look into whether that should change.
“Eliminating this loophole could help enable consent-based siting of long-term storage solutions for nuclear waste,” the release said.
According to the measure, the task force should be made up of at least 30 members. Five of those members should represent federal agencies such as the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Participants from at least seven state governments should also be part of the task force, the bill said. The remaining slots should be filled by representatives from industry, indigenous tribes, environmental groups and other related stakeholders.
If the bill becomes law, the task force will have one year from its effective date to submit a report to Congress and the White House that “provides a clear explanation of what constitutes ‘consent-based siting’ and “includes recommendations on how consent-based siting could be practically implemented.”
At deadline Wednesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing the bill had yet to be assigned to a committee.
