[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5057 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5057

To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to clarify the obligation 
of the Federal Government to take title to and possession of high-level 
radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel and establish an interim spent 
         nuclear fuel storage facility, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 19, 1994

Mr. Upton introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to 
      the Committees on Natural Resources and Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to clarify the obligation 
of the Federal Government to take title to and possession of high-level 
radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel and establish an interim spent 
         nuclear fuel storage facility, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Federal Nuclear Waste Responsibility 
Act of 1994''.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The transportation, storage, and disposal of high-level 
        radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel is a matter of 
        national urgency that is the responsibility of this generation.
            (2) The utility generators and owners of high-level 
        radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, together with their 
        customers, have met their obligations under the Nuclear Waste 
        Policy Act of 1982 to provide for the cost of siting, 
        licensing, construction, and operation of a Federal waste 
        management system for the transportation, storage, and disposal 
        of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
            (3) Some utilities have now exhausted their spent nuclear 
        fuel pool storage capacity, a total of 26 nuclear power 
        reactors will reach their spent nuclear fuel pool storage 
        capacity by the end of 1998, and approximately 80 nuclear power 
        reactors will be without spent nuclear fuel pool storage 
        capacity by 2010. As a result, utility rate payers face 
        significant costs associated with expanding storage capacity at 
        reactor sites, and continued delay is unacceptable.
            (4) Federal efforts to site, license, construct, and 
        operate disposal facilities in accordance with the provisions 
        of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 have not met the 
        timetables contemplated by such Act.
            (5) The Secretary of Energy has an obligation to take title 
        to and possession of high-level radioactive waste and spent 
        nuclear fuel beginning not later than January 31, 1998.
            (6) Notwithstanding the passage of 12 years since enactment 
        of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the payment of more 
        than $8,400,000,000 into the Nuclear Waste Fund during such 
        period, and the additional programmatic direction provided by 
        the Congress in the 1987 amendments to such Act, the projected 
        date of commencement of operations at a repository is, under 
        the most optimistic of assumptions, 2010.
            (7) Until a repository is operational, interim storage will 
        continue to be required for high-level radioactive waste and 
        spent nuclear fuel.

SEC. 3. FEDERAL OBLIGATIONS REGARDING HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND 
              SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL.

    Section 302(a) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 
10222(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(7)(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or other 
law, the terms of the contracts entered into pursuant to this section, 
or the commencement of operations of a repository, the Secretary shall, 
by not later than January 31, 1998--
            ``(i) take title to the high-level radioactive waste and 
        spent nuclear fuel covered by such contracts;
            ``(ii) begin taking possession of such waste and spent fuel 
        in accordance with the Federal Integrated Spent Nuclear Fuel 
        Management Program established in section 162; and
            ``(iii) establish an interim spent nuclear fuel storage 
        facility at 1 or more Federal sites.
    ``(B) The Secretary shall provide not less than 30 days advance 
notification to the Congress of any inability of the Secretary to meet 
any deadline specified in subparagraph (A).''.

SEC. 4. PERMIT AND LICENSING REQUIREMENTS.

    Section 185 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2235) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``c. (1) Notwithstanding any other law, no construction permit or 
combined construction and operating license may be issued for a 
utilization facility used for the generation of electricity for 
commercial sale until--
            ``(A) there is a facility licensed by the Federal 
        Government for the interim storage or permanent disposal of 
        high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel generated 
        by the utilization facility; and
            ``(B) the Secretary of Energy certifies that the storage or 
        disposal facility has, or is reasonably expected to have, an 
        adequate volume of capacity to accept all of the high-level 
        radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel that will be generated 
        by the utilization facility during the reasonably foreseeable 
        operational lifetime of the utilization facility.
    ``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to any construction permit or 
combined construction and operating license for which an application is 
filed before the date of the enactment of this subsection.''.
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