A lawmaker from New York state has introduced legislation aimed at easing the way for placing spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste into interim storage until a permanent repository is built.
The “Removing Nuclear Waste from our Communities Act of 2017,” from Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), would authorize the energy secretary to enter into contracts for storage of those waste forms with any licensee for a consolidated interim storage facility. Priority would go to storage of high-level waste and spent fuel from facilities in which the nuclear reactor is no longer operating and which are within a 50-mile radius of over 15 million people.
That would apply to the Indian Point Energy Center in Westchester County, N.Y., which is scheduled to close by 2021. Lowey’s congressional district includes the nuclear power plant.
Addressing another potential sticking point to interim storage, the bill says the energy secretary will have assumed title to high-level radioactive waste or spent fuel upon delivery or acceptance of the material.
The bill would also amend the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to make clear that the Nuclear Waste Fund could be used to pay for development, construction, operations and other costs related to an interim consolidated storage facility.
There are presently two license applications before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for construction of interim storage sites for spent fuel: Holtec International’s planned facility in southeastern New Mexico for up to 120,000 metric tons of waste; and Waste Control Specialists’ proposed site not far away in West Texas. WCS, though, earlier this year asked the NRC to suspend review of its application.
A separate bill from Lowey, also focused on Indian Point, would prohibit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from approving exemptions from emergency preparedness and security regulations for closed nuclear power plants in which any spent fuel remains in wet storage.
Lowey’s bills, introduced Nov. 16 with no co-sponsors, were referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
