Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
9/25/2015
A U.S. lawmaker from Texas plans by the end of September to introduce legislation that would enable private companies like Waste Control Specialists to host a consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility, RW Monitor learned this week. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, will introduce the “Interim Consolidated Storage Act of 2015,” which would amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to allow the Department of Energy to enter into interim storage contracts with private companies that hold a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to store used nuclear fuel.
The bill largely resembles Conaway’s draft legislation that emerged earlier this summer, including provisions that would require DOE to take title of the waste, enable the secretary of energy to enter into a settlement agreement with utilities, and open the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for the storage, although DOE would be limited to only spending interest accrued from the fund in a given fiscal year. Conaway’s office did not return calls for comment this week.
The Nuclear Waste Fund provision, though, could have unintended consequences. According to the bill language, “the Secretary shall not expend, on fees for dry modes of storage of high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel, amounts totaling more than the cumulative amount of interest generated by the Waste Fund each fiscal year, beginning in fiscal year 2016.”
The Nuclear Waste Fund currently stands at roughly $37 billion, which would allow for the approximately $1 billion the fund accrues in interest annually to go toward interim storage. Some industry executives say a conservative estimate of the cost of an interim storage facility is somewhere in the range of $100 million, including costs for licensing, construction, security, and transportation. That figure is well below the allotted amount under Conaway’s bill, and there is concern that dedicating the fund’s interest exclusively to interim storage will hurt its ability to eventually pay for a final geologic disposal facility.
According to a summary paper on Conaway’s legislation, obtained by RW Monitor, the bill would help end the federal government’s liabilities regarding its waste disposal obligations, which are estimated to reach $27.1 billion by 2021. “Enactment of this legislation will allow DOE to begin meeting its obligations under the NWPA, while maintaining a focus on the permanent repository program,” the paper says. It later adds, “The industry and the federal government are in agreement that there is a need for consolidated interim storage at a facility away from the reactor. There are obvious safety benefits to getting used fuel out of pools and into dry cask storage. Consolidating the materials will also provide significant savings to the federal government for maintenance and security costs to guard the waste.”
Conaway’s bill comes after Waste Control Specialists earlier this year announced plans to construct a private, consent-based interim storage facility at its Andrews, Texas, site, which is within the lawmaker’s district. The facility is pending approval of a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and an indication from Congress that DOE could move forward with shipping waste to a location other than Yucca Mountain.
During a press conference announcing its plans, WCS said it believed it could accept waste in Andrews under current legislation, but management would like confirmation from Congress on this interpretation. Should Congress give a positive signal, WCS plans to submit a license application sometime next year; under its schedule laid out earlier this year, the NRC would take three years to review the application, paving the way for an operations start date in late 2020. WCS did not return calls for comment this week.
