March 17, 2014

LYONS OPTIMISTIC U.S. LAWMAKERS CAN SEE COMMON GROUND ON NUCLEAR WASTE

By ExchangeMonitor

Given recent comments by a group of U.S. Senators, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Pete Lyons said yesterday he is “extraordinarily optimistic” that Congress will draft legislation to enact the Obama administration’s strategy for spent nuclear fuel management. At the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ winter 2013 meeting in Washington, D.C. yesterday, Lyons said, “To move ahead we must have legislation." He added: "Four Senators, led by [Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)], are taking a very active role in working toward that legislative package.” Wyden told the Wall Street Journal that he is working with Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on spent fuel legislation, and hopes to introduce language in about a month.

Murkowski on Monday released an energy blueprint document that largely backed the Obama strategy when it comes to the back end of the fuel cycle, notably supporting the creation of a Fed-Corporation type agency to handle siting and operations for interim storage and geologic repository sites. “I am extraordinarily optimistic and the administration is looking forward to working with that group of senators and other stakeholders, and hopefully members of the House are interested in being a part of the conversation,” Lyons said.

The sticking point from the House has largely been an insistence that review of the Yucca Mountain project—shuttered by Obama in 2010—be restarted. However, Murkowski and others from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee have reached out to House cohorts, and both sides have said they hope to continue communications. At the NARUC event yesterday, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said, “It’s important to work with Democrats and independents and all groups to come up with balanced approach. [Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.)] and I sat down with Ron Wyden and talked about what can we do together.” He added, “I hope we can do more of that.”

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