I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 433 

To prohibit the Secretary of Energy from planning, developing, or constructing a defense waste repository until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made a final decision with respect to the construction authorization application for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 11, 2017 

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina (for himself, Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina, 

and Mr. CRAMER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To prohibit the Secretary of Energy from planning, developing, or constructing a defense waste repository until 

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made a final 

decision with respect to the construction authorization 

application for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sensible Nuclear 

5 Waste Disposition Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 

4 10101 et seq.) designated the Yucca Mountain site 

5 as the sole site to dispose of high-level radioactive 

6 waste and spent nuclear fuel. 

7 (2) Pursuant to such Act, in 1985 President 

8 Ronald Reagan determined that atomic energy de9 fense waste is required to be disposed of in a com10 mon repository with commercial spent nuclear fuel. 

11 (3) The Secretary of Energy submitted the li12 cense application for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear 

13 Repository to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

14 on June 3, 2008. 

15 (4) The Commission issued the safety evalua16 tion report which found that the Yucca Mountain 

17 site could meet all regulatory standards for 

18 1,000,000 years. 

19 (5) On December 16, 2016, the Department of 

20 Energy released a draft plan titled ‘‘Draft Plan for 

21 a Defense Waste Repository’’ stating that the De22 partment of Energy will seek to construct a reposi23 tory to store defense high level nuclear waste. 

24 (6) The taxpayers of the United States have al25 ready paid more than $3,700,000,000 to dispose of 


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1 high-level radioactive waste from atomic energy de2 fense activities at the Yucca Mountain site. 

3 SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT, OR 

4 CONSTRUCTION OF DEFENSE WASTE REPOSI5 TORY. 

6 (a) LIMITATION.—The Secretary of Energy may not 

7 take any action relating to the planning, development, or 

8 construction of a defense waste repository until the date 

9 on which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission publishes 

10 a final decision on an application for a construction au11 thorization for a repository under section 114(d) of the 

12 Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10134(d)). 

13 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

14 (1) The terms ‘‘atomic energy defense activity’’, 

15 ‘‘high-level radioactive waste’’, ‘‘repository’’, and 

16 ‘‘spent nuclear fuel’’ have the meanings given those 

17 terms in section 2 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act 

18 of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101). 

19 (2) The term ‘‘defense waste repository’’ means 

20 the repository for high-level radioactive waste and 

21 spent nuclear fuel derived from the atomic energy 

22 defense activities of the Department of Energy, as 

23 described in the draft plan of the Department titled 


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•HR 433 IH

1 ‘‘Draft Plan for a Defense Waste Repository’’ pub2 lished on December 16, 2016. 

Æ 


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