The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow the Energy Department to contract for interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel even as it waits on a ruling on a permanent repository.
The amended version of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 reverses language in the draft legislation that would have required the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide on a license application to build a permanent resting site for U.S. nuclear waste before entering into any agreement on interim storage.
Committee members voted 49-4 to send the updated bill to the full House.
“Let me be clear, this amendment does not remove the federal government’s responsibility” to site a permanent nuclear waste repository, which DOE intends to build at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, said Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), the bill’s primary author.
The bill ensures that all activity associated with the transportation and storage of spent fuel, including any interim storage program, is part of and works toward the goal of permanent geologic disposal, according to a summary of the bill.
Tens of thousands of tons of defense and commercial nuclear waste are stored across the country, waiting on the Department of Energy to meet its legal mandate to collect, transport, and permanently dispose of the material.
In an effort to ensure the federal government meets that obligation, Shimkus’ bill would clarify that the Energy Department, and no other federal agency, has the authority to manage the federal land on which Yucca Mountain sits, and that DOE has the right to use Nevada’s territorial water at the site. The bill would also make the Environmental Protection Agency the sole regulator of air quality at the site, skirting state regulators.
