Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) this week introduced legislation that would allow the Department of Energy to contract private companies for interim storage of nuclear waste.
Such legislation is seen as necessary for establishing private, interim facilities that would store spent nuclear fuel now held on-site at nuclear power plants around the country. Two companies, Waste Control Specialists and Holtec International, are readying license application submissions to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for such facilities.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, and panel Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), have also said they would introduce legislation in the Senate allowing DOE to contract with private entities.
Mulvaney’s bill is similar to legislation Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, introduced in September. Conaway’s bill would allow DOE to spend annual interest from the $34 billion Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) on private storage. Mulvaney’s bill is not as direct in its funding mechanism, but would allow some access the the NWF. Mulvaney, who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, is listed as a sponsor for the Conaway bill. Mulvaney representatives could not be reached for comment.
DOE in December announced a three-part siting process that envisions a pilot facility, interim facilities, and eventually one or more permanent repositories for storing American nuclear waste. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s stance has been that it will not consider a bill that does not address the need for a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
