Separate bills introduced in the House of Representatives would put the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) branch on the job of helping resolve the long impasse over disposition of the nation’s radioactive waste.
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) submitted his “ARPA-E Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2019” on July 23, followed a week later by the “ARPA-E Reauthorization Act of 2019” from Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas.).
The bills would amend the 2007 America Competes Act, which established ARPA-E to promote development of energy technologies that are not yet ready for commercial investment. That would include revising the 2007 legislation’s language on ARPA-E’s goals.
That addition would include an all-new goal for ARPA-E to “provide transformative solutions to improve the management, clean-up, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel,” according to Johnson’s measure. The wording in Lucas’ bill is nearly identical, except that it cites low-level and high-level radioactive waste along with spent nuclear fuel.
The reauthorization bills were both referred to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, where Johnson is chair and Lucas the ranking member.
There was no immediate word from the panel this week on how the lawmakers believe ARPA-E might contribute to nuclear waste management.
The United States today holds about 100,000 metric tons of spent nuclear power fuel and high-level radioactive waste, spread across dozens of commercial and government sites around the nation. The federal government has sought for decades to find a permanent disposal site for the waste, with minimal success.
Congress in 1982 put the Department of Energy in charge of disposal. However, the agency still has not secured a license to build and operate a repository at its selected location under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Obama administration defunded the proceeding in 2010 and the Trump administration has not yet persuaded Congress to appropriate any money to resume licensing.
