Legislation proposed in the Senate Thursday would enact many of the policies outlined by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, setting the stage for interim spent nuclear fuel storage sites.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, authored the draft legislation that would help find a home for spent fuel currently accumulating at nuclear plants absent completion of the Yucca Mountain project shut down by the Obama administration in 2010. As noted in a release from the senators, the government has already spent $2.6 billion on claims from power producers related to the government's failure to open a repository, and that liability is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2020.
The bill would remove responsibility for waste disposal from the Department of Energy and place it within a new agency headed by a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. The new agency would create a consent-based process for creating interim storage facilities in communities that want them, potentially by 2021.