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A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill that would require the Department of Energy secretary to present an annual report on the U.S. inventory of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Starting in January 2022, the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA) would require DOE to report: how much money the U.S. has paid out for failing to dispose of nuclear waste from power plants, as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982; how much the DOE paid to reduce future payments projected to be made by the United States; how much the DOE spends each year to manage and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste; and projected costs to store, manage, transport, and dispose of the country’s inventory of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the United States.
The bill also aims to keep nuclear technology domestic, giving the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the ability to use “national security” as a reason to deny imports of nuclear fuel from China and Russia.
The bill would also authorize a “targeted credit program” to save reactors at risk of shutting down, like the Byron plant in Illinois.
Bill sponsors include Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) Mike Crapo (R-Id.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). The lawmakers introduced a draft of the legislation in late July. Barrasso’s committee held a hearing on it in early August.
The bill may not pass in the 116th session of Congress, now in a lame duck period. Legislators will take a Thanksgiving break next week and will only meet for three weeks in December before adjourning for the holidays.
After the 116th session gavels out in January, any pending legislation will be null and void and would have to be refiled in the 117th session to stand a chance of becoming law.
The American Nuclear Society, a professional organization for members of the nuclear industry, praised the bill in a statement Tuesday. The society said it welcomes the act’s provisions to streamline the Nuclear Regulatory Commission permitting process and incentivize commercial reactor designs, among other things.
“Taken together, we believe this legislation would provide an expanded set of policy tools for ushering in a new generation of advanced reactors needed for deep decarbonization in the U.S. and around the world,” the American Nuclear Society said in its statement.