So much for the notion that Congress can’t do anything
right. The thoughtful and smart actions of Senators Murkowski and
Landrieu, working with Senators Feinstein, Alexander and Bingaman, produced a
bill out of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee last
Tuesday, approved Thursday by the full Committee, that took the first step to
solving our nation’s nuclear waste problem. I’ve been waiting my entire career
for this to happen. In fact, this first step is so significant that I’m
having trouble catching my breath!
If you remember, the Yucca Mountain Project, the nation’s first
selected nuclear disposal site, was recently scrapped for being not workable
and the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future was
appointed to find another path forward. After reviewing the last 60 years of
frustrated science and policy, in February the BRC released a number of very
good recommendations addressing nuclear in general, but three specific ones
were critical to actually dealing with high-level nuclear waste and managing
spent nuclear fuel for the next hundred years. They were:
1) executing interim storage for spent nuclear fuel, 2)
resuming the site selection process for a second repository (Yucca being the
first, the massive salts being the best), and 3) forming a quasi-government
entity, or FedCorp, to execute the program and take control of the Nuclear
Waste Fund in order to do so.
The first recommendation separates fuel from real waste, allowing
storage of still-usable spent nuclear fuel from reactor sites either to be used
in future reactors or eventually disposed, without needing to retrieve it from
deep in the earth as is presently the Law. The second recommendation allows us
to choose the best geology for the permanent disposal of actual high-level waste that has no value since it is the waste from reprocessing old fuel. This real
waste needs to be disposed of promptly, not just looked at for another few
decades. It has cost billions to manage this waste in places that were always meant
to be temporary. The third recommendation controls cost and administration,
because, duh, we’re broke.
Tuesday’s bill starts the ball rolling by implementing the first
recommendation, authorizing “the Secretary of Energy to
site, construct, and operate consolidated storage facilities to provide storage
as needed for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.” – IN
THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—112th Cong., 2d Sess.
The short version is this bill is consent-based, meaning the Feds
can’t just pick a site and force it down a State’s throat, but have to wait for
someone to bid for it and requires approval of the Governor, any affected
Tribes, and the local representatives of that State. Plus, it authorizes the
Nuclear Waste Fund to be used for what it always was intended. And DOE has only
120 days from passage to begin accepting proposals so it won’t languish for
years. This bill breaks the nuclear waste logjam. It’s simple, it’s the right
thing to do, it will save lots of money, it’s the best thing for the
environment, and it’s a win-win, so how did the Senate do this? And so fast!
Now it’s up to the House to maintain the do-nothing image of
Congress, kill this bill, and let us get back to wasting billions of dollars
looking at the problem for 30 more years.
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