Title: Sensible Nuclear Waste Disposition Act
Policy area: Energy

Summary:
Sensible Nuclear Waste Disposition Act
This bill prohibits the Department of Energy (DOE)	from planning, developing, or constructing a defense waste repository until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves or disapproves the license to construct the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada. (A defense waste repository is a site used for storing high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel derived from the atomic energy defense activities of DOE.)

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 433 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Sensible Nuclear Waste Disposition 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) 
        designated the Yucca Mountain site as the sole site to dispose 
        of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
            (2) Pursuant to such Act, in 1985 President Ronald Reagan 
        determined that atomic energy defense waste is required to be 
        disposed of in a common repository with commercial spent 
        nuclear fuel.
            (3) The Secretary of Energy submitted the license 
        application for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository to the 
        Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 3, 2008.
            (4) The Commission issued the safety evaluation report 
        which found that the Yucca Mountain site could meet all 
        regulatory standards for 1,000,000 years.
            (5) On December 16, 2016, the Department of Energy released 
        a draft plan titled ``Draft Plan for a Defense Waste 
        Repository'' stating that the Department of Energy will seek to 
        construct a repository to store defense high level nuclear 
        waste.
            (6) The taxpayers of the United States have already paid 
        more than $3,700,000,000 to dispose of high-level radioactive 
        waste from atomic energy defense activities at the Yucca 
        Mountain site.

SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT, OR CONSTRUCTION OF DEFENSE 
              WASTE REPOSITORY.

    (a) Limitation.--The Secretary of Energy may not take any action 
relating to the planning, development, or construction of a defense 
waste repository until the date on which the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission publishes a final decision on an application for a 
construction authorization for a repository under section 114(d) of the 
Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10134(d)).
    (b) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) The terms ``atomic energy defense activity'', ``high-
        level radioactive waste'', ``repository'', and ``spent nuclear 
        fuel'' have the meanings given those terms in section 2 of the 
        Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101).
            (2) The term ``defense waste repository'' means the 
        repository for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear 
        fuel derived from the atomic energy defense activities of the 
        Department of Energy, as described in the draft plan of the 
        Department titled ``Draft Plan for a Defense Waste Repository'' 
        published on December 16, 2016.
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