I 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5943 
To authorize the Secretary of Energy to establish monetary prizes for 
achievements in designing and proposing nuclear energy used fuel alternatives. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 1, 2008 
Mr. BURGESS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Science and Technology 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of Energy to establish monetary 
prizes for achievements in designing and proposing nu-
clear energy used fuel alternatives. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Nuclear Used Fuel 
Prize Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ADMINISTERING ENTITY.—The term ‘‘ad-
ministering entity’’ means the entity with which the 
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Secretary enters into an agreement under section 
4(c). 
(2) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 
means the Department of Energy. 
(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Energy. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The rising cost of energy has become a hin-
drance to American economic progress. 
(2) High and rising energy costs have become 
a burden upon the American family. 
(3) Nuclear energy can be a safe, efficient, 
clean, and affordable source of renewable energy and 
should be considered as part of the solution for long- 
term American energy independence. 
(4) Used nuclear fuel is and has been safely 
stored on nuclear energy electricity producing reac-
tor sites for many years. 
(5) Those sites were originally not designed or 
built for such storage. 
(6) By 2015 it is estimated that the United 
States will maintain 70,000 tons of high-level nu-
clear waste. 
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(7) The country’s electricity needs are best 
served by allowing new nuclear reactors to be built, 
in many cases on existing reactor sites. 
(8) Removal of the used nuclear fuel from those 
sites can be safely done and would lead to more effi-
cient management of used fuel, and lower costs. 
(9) Development of alternatives to current stor-
age facilities, including the Yucca Mountain long- 
term storage facility, would also allow used nuclear 
fuel from decommissioned reactor sites to be moved 
and final clean up of those sites to take place. 
(10) Citizens and communities in the United 
States interested in developing alternatives to cur-
rent storage proposals, including the high-level 
Yucca Mountain storage facility, should be provided 
the incentive to move forward with these designs and 
plans. 
(11) Prize legislation has been a successful 
method used by the United States Government to 
solve some of our country’s most difficult problems, 
from space travel to vehicles with super efficiency. 
(12) There is merit in and need for establishing 
a program of prize incentives to develop used nu-
clear fuel management plans. 
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SEC. 4. PRIZE AUTHORITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out a 
program to competitively award cash prizes in conformity 
with this Act to advance the research, development, dem-
onstration, and commercial application of nuclear used 
fuel storage. 
(b) ADVERTISING AND SOLICITATION OF COMPETI-
TORS.— 
(1) ADVERTISING.—The Secretary shall widely 
advertise prize competitions to encourage broad par-
ticipation in the program carried out under sub-
section (a), including individuals, universities, com-
munities, and large and small businesses. 
(2) ANNOUNCEMENT THROUGH FEDERAL REG-
ISTER NOTICE.—The Secretary shall announce each 
prize competition by publishing a notice in the Fed-
eral Register. This notice shall include essential ele-
ments of the competition such as the subject of the 
competition, the duration of the competition, the eli-
gibility requirements for participation in the com-
petition, the process for participants to register for 
the competition, the amount of the prize, and the 
criteria for awarding the prize. 
(c) ADMINISTERING THE COMPETITION.—The Sec-
retary may enter into an agreement with a private, non-
profit entity to administer the prize competitions, subject 
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to the provisions of this Act. The administering entity 
shall perform the following functions: 
(1) Advertise the competition and its results. 
(2) Raise funds from private entities and indi-
viduals to pay for administrative costs and cash 
prizes. 
(3) Develop, in consultation with and subject to 
the final approval of the Secretary, criteria to select 
winners based upon the goal of safely and ade-
quately storing nuclear used fuel. 
(4) Determine, in consultation with and subject 
to the final approval of the Secretary, the appro-
priate amount of the awards. 
(5) Protect against the administering entity’s 
unauthorized use or disclosure of a registered par-
ticipant’s intellectual property, trade secrets, and 
confidential business information. Any information 
properly identified as trade secrets or confidential 
business information that is submitted by a partici-
pant as part of a competitive program under this 
Act may be withheld from public disclosure. 
(6) Develop and promulgate sufficient rules to 
define the parameters of designing and proposing 
safe and secure nuclear energy used fuel storage 
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with input from industry, citizens, and corporations 
familiar with such activities. 
(d) FUNDING SOURCES.—Prizes under this Act may 
consist of Federal appropriated funds, funds provided by 
the administering entity, or funds raised through grants 
or donations. The Secretary may accept funds from other 
Federal agencies for such cash prizes and, notwith-
standing section 3302(b) of title 31, United States Code, 
may use such funds for the cash prize program. Other 
than publication of the names of prize sponsors, the Sec-
retary may not give any special consideration to any pri-
vate sector entity or individual in return for a donation 
to the Secretary or administering entity. 
(e) ANNOUNCEMENT
OF PRIZES.—The Secretary 
may not publish a notice required by subsection (b)(2) 
until all the funds needed to pay out the announced 
amount of the prize have been appropriated to the Depart-
ment or the Department has received from the admin-
istering entity a written commitment to provide all nec-
essary funds. 
SEC. 5. ELIGIBILITY. 
To be eligible to win a prize under this Act, an indi-
vidual or entity— 
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(1) shall notify the administering entity of in-
tent to submit ideas and intent to collect the prize 
upon selection; 
(2) shall comply with all the requirements stat-
ed in the Federal Register notice required under sec-
tion 4(b)(2); 
(3) in the case of a private entity, shall be in-
corporated in and maintain a primary place of busi-
ness in the United States, and in the case of an in-
dividual, whether participating singly or in a group, 
shall be a citizen of the United States; 
(4) shall not be a Federal entity, a Federal em-
ployee acting within the scope of his or her employ-
ment, or an employee of a national laboratory acting 
within the scope of employment; 
(5) shall not use Federal funding or other Fed-
eral resources to compete for the prize; 
(6) shall not be an entity acting on behalf of 
any foreign government or agent acting on behalf of 
a current federally filed proposal for a spent nuclear 
fuel storage facility or repository; and 
(7) shall present a proposal to the admin-
istering entity to remove used nuclear fuel for such 
period of time as shall be necessary prior to the de-
velopment of advanced fuel cycle facilities and a 
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final repository for used fuel waste as may be ulti-
mately in need of disposal. 
SEC. 6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 
The Federal Government shall not, by virtue of offer-
ing or awarding a prize under this Act, be entitled to any 
intellectual property rights derived as a consequence of, 
or in direct relation to, the participation by a registered 
participant in a competition authorized by this Act. This 
section shall not be construed to prevent the Federal Gov-
ernment from negotiating a license for the use of intellec-
tual property developed for a prize competition under this 
Act. The Federal Government may seek assurances that 
technologies for which prizes are awarded under this Act 
are offered for commercialization in the event an award 
recipient does not take, or is not expected to take within 
a reasonable time, effective steps to achieve practical ap-
plication of the technology. 
SEC. 7. WAIVER OF LIABILITY. 
The Secretary may require registered participants to 
waive claims against the Federal Government and the ad-
ministering entity (except claims for willful misconduct) 
for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, 
or profits arising from the registered participants’ partici-
pation in a competition under this Act. The Secretary 
shall give notice of any waiver required under this section 
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