A bipartisan coalition of senators reintroduced last week a bill that would provide financial assistance to communities affected by stranded spent nuclear fuel at decommissioned power plants.
Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Angus King (I-Maine), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) all co-sponsored the measure introduced April 21, called the Sensible and Timely Relief for America’s Nuclear Districts’ Economic Development (STRANDED) Act.
The bill is largely the same as one introduced by Duckworth in June 2019, which never made it out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
If it became law, the measure would direct the energy secretary to establish a “stranded nuclear waste task force” that would submit a report to Congress on financial assistance plans for communities hosting a nuclear power plant that is either in the process of being decommissioned or already shuttered. Eligible communities would also receive an annual federal grant of $15 for every kilogram of stranded nuclear waste stored at its local power plant, according to the bill.
At press time Thursday morning, the STRANDED Act had not yet been assigned to a committee.
With the stalled Yucca Mountain repository project in Nevada no longer in the running, the U.S. does not yet have a permanent or interim repository for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. In the absence of a consolidated storage site, used fuel from civilian power plants is stored onsite or nearby at independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs).
Meanwhile, nuclear power plants nationwide are shutting down. In Duckworth’s home state of Illinois, two plants — Byron and Dresden Nuclear Generating Stations — are slated to close this year. In Gillibrand’s neck of the woods, Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, N.Y. should go dark at the end of the month.
