Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) latest legislative push to establish a pilot program for interim storage of radioactive waste got stuck in Senate gridlock this week when the big, bi-partisan energy bill stalled out amid a fight about climate change.
Feinstein’s proposal was one of many amendments being balled up into a legislative package known as the American Energy Innovation Act — or, as it is widely known in Washington, the energy bill. Feinstein’s amendment, numbered SA 1360, is one of many proposed to the energy bill’s shell legislation, which Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) filed in October.
The package looked like a lock to pass as recently as Monday morning, but a fracas that evening over one amendment — a bi-partisan proposal to limit use of heat-trapping hydrofluorocarbons coolants found in air conditions and refrigerators — prompted Democrats en bloc, and many Republicans, to vote against ending debate.
If approved by Congress, the Feinstein amendment would authorize the secretary of energy to establish a pilot program for licensing, building, and operating at least one federal facility for interim storage of used fuel and high-level waste. The amendment would also direct the Department of Energy to within 120 days of bill passage issue a request for proposals for a cooperative agreement under which the partnering entity would apply for Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing of one or more storage sites.
Within 120 days of release of the RFP, the energy secretary would be required to provide Congress with a plan covering the licensing, construction, and operations costs for the facility; a schedule for NRC licensing, operations, and eventual closure and decommissioning; and other aspects of the project.
Siting would require approval from the governor of the state in which the facility would be built, along with impacted local governments and Indian tribes.
Funds for this work could be drawn from the Nuclear Waste Fund, subject to congressional appropriations, the amendment says.
On Monday evening, Senators voted 75-15 against ending debate on the package of amendments intended to become the text of the energy bill. Only 15 Senators voted in favor, all Republicans, while 12 Senators did not vote at all. Until and unless Senators vote to invoke cloture and end debate, the package will not get a final vote on the Senate floor. Senate leadership had not scheduled another cloture vote at deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The language of SA 1360 is largely the same as that found in appropriations bills and other legislation crafted by Feinstein, Murkowski, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in recent years. The measures are all intended to push the Department of Energy toward meeting its legal mandate to do something with the nation’s radioactive waste; none have passed.
