II

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 429

To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to allow commercial nuclear

utilities that have contracts with the Secretary of Energy under section

302 of that Act to receive credits to offset the cost of storing spent

fuel that the Secretary is unable to accept for storage on and after

January 31, 1998.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

FEBRUARY 16 (legislative day, JANUARY 30), 1995

Mr. BRYAN (for himself and Mr. REID) introduced the following bill; which

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural

Resources

A BILL

To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to allow

commercial nuclear utilities that have contracts with the

Secretary of Energy under section 302 of that Act to

receive credits to offset the cost of storing spent fuel

that the Secretary is unable to accept for storage on

and after January 31, 1998.

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 ‘‘Independent Spent Nu5 clear Fuel Storage Act of 1995’’.
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1 SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Sec. 1. Short title.

Sec. 2 Table of contents.

Sec. 3 Definitions.

Sec. 4 Findings.

Sec. 5 Amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.

2 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

3 For purposes of this Act—

4 (1) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Nuclear

5 Regulatory Commission; and

6 (2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary

7 of the Department of Energy.

8 SEC. 4. FINDINGS.

9 The Congress finds that—

10 (1) By 1998, approximately 45,000 tons of

11 spent nuclear fuel will be stored at commercial nu12 clear reactors across the nation;

13 (2) the deep geologic high level radioactive

14 waste and spent nuclear fuel repository envisioned

15 by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C.

16 10101 et. seq.) will not be constructed in time to

17 permit the Secretary to receive and accept high level

18 radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel as con19 templated by sections 123 and 302 of that Act (42

20 U.S.C. 10143, 10222), with the result that the Sec21 retary will be unable to perform contracts executed

22 pursuant to section 302(a) of that Act with persons
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1 who generate or hold title to high level radioactive

2 waste or spent nuclear fuel;

3 (3) there have been no orders for the develop4 ment or construction of civilian nuclear power gener5 ating facilities since the enactment of the Nuclear

6 Waste Policy Act of 1982; several such facilities that

7 were anticipated when the Act was enacted are not

8 operating now;

9 (4) it does not now appear that a deep geologic

10 high level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel

11 repository will be available before the year 2010 or

12 later;

13 (5) by the time a deep geologic repository is

14 available many currently operating commercial nu15 clear reactors will need spent fuel storage capacity

16 beyond the maximum now available in at-reactor

17 spent fuel storage pools; nuclear utilities have spent

18 and will spend major sums to construct facilities, in19 cluding dry cask spent fuel storage facilities, for use

20 in the interim before a deep geologic repository is

21 available;

22 (6) the sums spent for the purposes described

23 in paragraph (5) are the same funds that commer24 cial nuclear utilities intended to contribute to the

25 Nuclear Waste Fund established by section 302(c)
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1 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C.

2 10222 (c));

3 (7) the technology for long term storage of

4 spent nuclear fuel, including the technology of dry

5 cask storage, has improved dramatically since the

6 enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982;

7 (8) the existing statutory jurisdiction of the

8 Commission, under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954

9 (42 U.S.C. 2001 et. seq.), the Energy Reorganiza10 tion Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5801 et. seq.), Execu11 tive Order 11834 (42 U.S.C. 5801 note), the Nu12 clear Regulatory Commission Reorganization Plan

13 No. 1 of 1980, and the Commission’s various au14 thorization Acts includes the jurisdiction to review

15 and evaluate the spent fuel storage capability of

16 commercial nuclear utilities that hold or seek li17 censes to receive and possess nuclear materials from

18 the Commission;

19 (9) commercial nuclear utilities that hold li20 censes to receive and possess nuclear materials are

21 generally well suited to maintain the institutional ca22 pability necessary to become stewards of spent nu23 clear fuel during a period of interim storage;

24 (10) the increased radioactive decay that will

25 occur in spent nuclear fuel that has been stored for
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1 interim periods prior to delivery to the Secretary

2 pursuant to section 123 of the Nuclear Waste Policy

3 Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10143) will ease and facili4 tate its subsequent handling, transportation, and

5 final disposal.

6 SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO THE NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY

7 ACT OF 1982.

8 Section 302 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982

9 (42 U.S.C. 10222(a)) is amended by inserting at the end

10 thereof the following new subsection:

11 ‘‘(f)(1) After January 31, 1998, if the Secretary does

12 not have a facility available to accept spent fuel from per13 sons holding contracts under this section, those persons

14 may, through credits on fee payments under subsection

15 (a)(2), offset the expenses of providing storage of spent

16 fuel generated after that date (including expenses reason17 ably incurred before that date in anticipation of the neces18 sity of providing such storage) and until the date of the

19 Secretary’s first acceptance of that person’s spent fuel at

20 a storage or disposal facility authorized by this Act.

21 ‘‘(2) The credits described in paragraph (1)—

22 ‘‘(A) shall be deducted from each remittance of

23 a person’s fee payments to the Nuclear Waste Fund

24 from the time that the person meets the conditions

25 of paragraph (1) until the time that the Secretary
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1 first accepts that person’s spent fuel at a storage or

2 disposal facility authorized by this Act; and

3 ‘‘(B) shall be in an amount determined by the

4 Secretary to reflect the cost of storage qualifying

5 under subsection (f)(1).

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