Pending legislation from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) would require the Department of Energy to each year account for continuing and anticipated costs for management of the nation’s growing inventory of radioactive waste.
The American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 contains a series of measures intended to sustain the United States’ existing nuclear power fleet and uranium production industry, along with promoting development of advanced nuclear technologies, in the face of global competition from China and Russia.
It also gives some attention to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle.
That includes language calling for an unspecified amount of Department of Energy funding via an award to the first non-federal entity that develops a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved advanced nuclear fuel that uses a higher percentage of fuel than existing materials or employs isotopes from used fuel or depleted uranium.
If passed, the bill would also require the secretary of energy to file yearly reports with Congress on expenses related to U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The initial filing would be due by Jan. 1, 2022.
Under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Energy Department was required by Jan. 21, 1998, to begin disposal of what is now a stockpile in the neighborhood of 100,000 metric tons of radioactive waste. It is spread around 121 locations in 39 states – mostly active and retired nuclear power plants, House lawmakers noted last week during budget debates.
The Energy Department’s 2008 license application at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., has languished for a decade without any funding. The Trump administration tried in three consecutive budget plans to secure congressional appropriations to resume the proceeding, with no luck. For the upcoming 2021 budget year, it is instead seeking $27.5 million for a program focused on early development of centralized, temporary storage of the waste.
After sealing “standard contracts” with DOE, nuclear utilities paid billions of dollars into the Nuclear Waste Fund that is supposed to pay for the disposal facility, with nothing to show for the money to date. They began suing the federal government after the deadline passed, and to date have won roughly $7.5 billion to offset their ongoing expenses for on-site storage of the used fuel.
“American taxpayers spend $2.2 million every day in legal costs because Washington has not disposed of our nation’s spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste,” committee spokeswoman Sarah Durdaller said by email Monday. “Chairman Barrasso supports increasing transparency to show the American public the consequences of our failure to follow the law.”
The Barrasso legislation would require the annual report to show how much the federal government has spent over the year and in total to holders of standard contracts for breach of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and associated financial damages. The department would also be directed to account for spending intended to lower the amount of future outlays to those utilities.
More broadly, DOE would have to tell Congress how much it has expended in total for storage, management, and disposal of spent fuel and high-level waste, and life-cycle costs for that same work – up to and including waste generated through 2050.
Congress would also want to know of any systems at DOE to improve accounting of liabilities for waste life-cycle expenses, and to receive recommendations for bettering that accounting, under the legislation.
Durdaller did not say when Barrasso expects to submit the final version of the legislation, which was the subject of a Wednesday hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Some Democrats on the panel said they have continued about environmental language and other aspects of the discussion draft.
Last November, Barrasso filed the Senate version of the 2019 Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act. That legislation is aimed at advancing licensing of Yucca Mountain and establishing a program for interim storage until the repository is ready. It remains before the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Companion legislation in the House, spearheaded by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), remains with the lower chamber’s Energy and Commerce Committee.
The 116th Congress ends on Jan. 3, 2021. Any bills not passed by that date would have to be refiled in the next Congress. Between now and then is a major election on Nov. 3, further legislative efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, and continued work to pass spending bills for the upcoming 2021 federal fiscal year.
During this week’s committee hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said the United States must find an innovative solution to its growing inventory of radioactive waste even as it takes steps to strengthen its nuclear power sector.
“So as we steer nuclear innovation forward, I want to make sure we make it a really important strategic priority to have that innovation focus on the potential, the Holy Grail, of dealing with that terrible burden of spent fuel and actually turning that burden into an asset,” Whitehouse said in his opening comments to the session.
While he did not use the term specifically, the lawmaker was referring to the potential for recycling used fuel for reuse in nuclear plants, his office confirmed.
Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal has regularly discussed recycling as a potential solution to the dilemma, noting that spent fuel retains 95% of its original energy.
Nuclear waste storage “creates cost, creates hazard, creates danger,” Whitehouse said. “It is a liability in an economic sense to have nuclear waste stockpiled at our facilities. So there’s value to finding a way to solve that problem. The question that I have is, as we embark on nuclear innovation, how can we make sure that the innovators see that value of that.”
Testifying before the panel, Armond Cohen, co-founder and executive director of the nongovernmental Clean Air Task Force, concurred that used fuel should be thought of as an untapped asset. However, he said the disposal question must be resolved at least in parallel: “Regardless or reuse of spent fuel, there will still be a residual amount, probably a significant amount, that will need to be dealt with and isolated for many years.”
Whitehouse took note of the comment, but said he wanted to remain focused on the topic of innovation. Earlier in the session, he dismissed the likelihood of the Yucca Mountain repository ever being built to take nuclear waste.
“Some people say we’re going to put it in Nevada. Good luck with that. I don’t think so. I don’t think we have a solution,” Whitehouse said.
