March 17, 2014

SEN. FEINSTEIN CALLS FOR SPENT FUEL MEETING WITH CHU

By ExchangeMonitor

Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) continued her push to develop a policy for spent nuclear fuel, saying on the Senate floor Monday that she intends to meet with Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu in December to discuss the issue. The meeting would “put forward a little agenda of how to proceed toward this so I know he is, in fact, in good faith suggesting it,” she said. Feinstein has repeatedly said that she would not fund programs for new nuclear energy absent a plan for spent fuel, including a program for licensing small modular reactors. “It seems to me we need a place to put spent fuel. I am not opposed to nuclear if we can properly take care of its waste,” she said Monday, adding that such a policy could include “regional repositories” and time limits for on-site storage of used fuel.

Feinstein added that she has already discussed spent fuel policy in a meeting with Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee leaders Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Alexander said that the Senators will develop a plan within a year. “What I am committed to do, working with Senator Feinstein, and I am delighted she has this intense level of interest, and Senators Bingaman and Murkowski, the ranking members of the Energy Committee, is trying to create an inexorable process toward a result on finding a proper place to store used nuclear fuel,” he said. “I hope we can do that within a year. That doesn’t mean we will have all the decisions made, but it means we could have, I believe, a process established that will produce a result.”

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