The “long-term policy solutions” for spent nuclear fuel “will require many difficult conversations,” Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) wrote in an op-ed published Sunday in the local Orange County Register.
Levin’s district includes the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which shut down in 2013 and which plant owner Southern California Edison is now decommissioning.
In his op-ed, Levin supported the Joe Biden (D) administration’s ongoing effort to find a site for a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. Federal law forbids construction of such a site before the government builds a permanent deep geological repository, such as the proposed, unbuilt and perpetually stalled Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev.
Nevada’s federal congressional delegation almost universally oppose storing nuclear waste at Yucca. The state government also has an anti-Yucca agency that it mobilizes to push back against pro-Yucca sentiment. Following recent support of Yucca by some members of a House committee, the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects planned a virtual public meeting this week.
With Yucca effectively out of the picture and interim storage a distant possibility, Levin has pushed for smaller reformers in federal nuclear policy. These include refiling a bill that would make the Nuclear Regulatory Commission mandate that spent fuel casks at nuclear power plants be able to safely store waste for 100 years, compared with the 40 years currently required.
A three-term congressman, Levin represents a reliably Democratic district. In March, he easily won the open primary for California’s 49th district with about 51% of the vote, netting about twice as many votes as his next-closest challenger, Republican Matt Gunderson.
Levin is also a cofounder of the congressional spent fuel caucus, a bipartisan group that sometimes holds closed-door meetings with officials from the Department of Energy and other agencies.
