Reps. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Friday toured the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California while discussing solutions for managing American nuclear waste.
Shimkus, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which holds jurisdiction over nuclear waste management, has longed voiced his support for the planned repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Committee members have refused to consider nuclear waste legislation that does not address the site, while railing against the Obama administration for failing to follow the amended Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which designated Yucca Mountain as the sole site for permanent nuclear waste storage.
Issa, whose district includes SONGS, has been seeking a solution for removing some 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste from the shuttered plant, which sits along the Pacific coastline. SONGS is one of about 100 nuclear sites with stranded nuclear waste all over the country. Issa recently introduced the Interim Consolidated Storage Act, which would allow the Department of Energy to enter into public-private contracts for storage of certain high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, using expenditures from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund. Issa introduced the legislation with cosponsors including Rep. Mike Conway (R-Texas), whose district includes a potential interim storage site that Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists plans to build and operate.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is unlikely to consider Issa’s legislation, according to a panel aide, because it would directly compete with efforts to restart the national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
“By bringing other lawmakers to our district, to educate and allow them to see the problems we face here locally, it’s my hope we can inspire action and the buy-in we need to advance a solution,” Issa said in a statement. “In Congress, I’ll continue working on common-sense solutions to nuclear storage that ensure the federal government upholds the promise it made to ratepayers and gets this waste safely, and securely removed from our communities as quickly as possible.
