The fiscal 2017 Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill includes language allowing the Department of Energy to contract Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed private facilities to store nuclear waste.
The Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee on Wednesday signed off on the $37.5 billion bill that primarily would fund the Department of Energy for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.
Introduced by subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), language in the bill would allow DOE to move forward with planned consolidated interim spent fuel storage sites operated by firms including Waste Control Specialists (WCS) and Holtec International.
WCS plans to submit its Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application this month for operation of an interim storage facility in Texas, while Holtec is preparing its own license application for a similar site in New Mexico. Combined, the facilities would have the capacity to store the estimated 74,000 metric tons of commercial spent fuel that has been accumulating at American reactor sites. DOE in December formally kicked off planning for phased, adaptive, consent-based storage of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste, which calls for operation of a pilot storage facility by 2021; one or more larger, interim facilities by 2025; and at least one permanent geologic repository by 2048.
A pilot consolidated storage program is also covered under the Senate bill, according to an Appropriations Committee press release.
Alexander in a statement Wednesday called the legislation “an important step toward solving the 25-year-old nuclear waste stalemate.”
“Today’s vote is proof that the appropriations process is working. Sen. Feinstein and I have worked hard to create a bipartisan bill, and I look forward to the bill being considered by the full Appropriations Committee (on Thursday),” Alexander said.
The fiscal 2017 House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill, released on Tuesday, included $150 million for the Nuclear Waste Disposal program, the impetus for the repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and $20 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume processing the Yucca Mountain license application. The Obama administration’s 2017 budget proposal included no new funding for the Nuclear Waste Disposal program, instead laying out plans to replace repository plans at Yucca Mountain.
The Senate bill will be made public Thursday during full committee markup.
