II

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2244

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

JUNE 24 (legislative day, JUNE 7), 1994

Mr. BRYAN 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 1994’’.
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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 forty-five thousand

11 tons of spent nuclear fuel will be stored at commer12 cial nuclear 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 Numbered 1 of 1980, and the Commission’s various

14 authorization 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; and

6 (11) the median estimated cost to commercial

7 nuclear facilities of acquiring or constructing at8 reactor dry storage facilities, plus the long term op9 erating cost, is approximately 0.56 mil per kilowatt10 hour under average industry fuel burnup rates.

11 SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO THE NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY

12 ACT OF 1982.

13 Section 302 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982

14 (42 U.S.C. 10222(a)) is amended by inserting at the end

15 thereof the following new subsection:

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

17 not have a facility available to accept spent fuel from per18 sons holding contracts under this section, those persons

19 may, through credits on fee payments under subsection

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

21 fuel generated after that date (including expenses reason22 ably incurred before that date in anticipation of the neces23 sity of providing such storage) and until the date of the

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

25 a storage or disposal facility authorized by this Act.
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1 ‘‘(2) The credits described in paragraph (1)—

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

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

4 from the time that the person meets the conditions

5 of paragraph (1) until the time that the Secretary

6 first accepts that person’s spent fuel at a storage or

7 disposal facility authorized by this Act; and

8 ‘‘(B) shall be in the amount of 0.56 mil per

9 kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by the per10 son’s civilian nuclear power reactor and sold during

11 the period the person is eligible for the credit, or in

12 such other amount as may be certified to the Sec13 retary by the regulatory authority which establishes

14 the rates charged to customers for electricity gen15 erated by the person’s civilian nuclear power reac16 tor.’’.

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