Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) urged Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Wednesday to move forward with interim storage of nuclear waste, with or without congressional action.
According to her, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have testified that private storage facilities in Texas and New Mexico could acquire licenses and operate without additional action from Congress.
Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, has joined Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in crafting an appropriations bill that would allow DOE to contract with private storage companies. During a subcommittee hearing on DOE’s fiscal 2017 budget request Wednesday, Feinstein questioned whether that effort is needed, saying she feels “inordinate” frustration that nuclear waste policy remains stalled, increasing the risk of accident at commercial sites.
“I don’t understand why this doesn’t go ahead. Every time we have hope for some nuclear waste facility, something stops it,” Feinstein told Moniz. “If there’s going to be a real future for nuclear, there has to be a place to put the waste. Now that we have one and know that we’re cleared to go ahead and sanction it and work out the legal anomalies. My thinking is that you should do just that.”
Moniz said his understanding is that the private companies that plan to submit NRC license applications, Waste Control Specialists and Holtec International, would like clarity through congressional action. From DOE standpoint, he said there will need to be clarity on the timing of spent fuel ownership and the potential for liabilities. The federal government has paid about $5.3 billion so far in damages to utilities as result of DOE breaking nuclear waste disposal agreements from the 1980s as repository plans have remained stalled at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Moniz said he fully supports the waste language Feinstein and Alexander plan to include in the appropriations bill, but DOE is working on “all options moving forward.”
“We need to move forward on the storage option, whether it’s public or private, especially so we can move the fuel from shutdown reactors quickly, and we’ll work with you on that,” Moniz said.
Feinstein asked Moniz: If an operator puts forth a good proposal that meets DOE concerns, will DOE move ahead with it?
He answered that DOE is prepared to work with NRC, but no license applications have been filed. WCS expects to submits its license application in April, while Holtec expects to submit its own this summer.
“We are certainly discussing this at length and getting prepared,” Moniz said.
