[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 473 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 473

To establish as the nuclear energy policy of the United States that no 
new civilian nuclear power reactors shall be built until adequate waste 
       emplacement capacity is available, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            February 24 (legislative day, February 22), 1995

 Mr. Wellstone introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish as the nuclear energy policy of the United States that no 
new civilian nuclear power reactors shall be built until adequate waste 
       emplacement capacity is available, 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 ``Nuclear Energy Policy Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) a national energy policy that allows the construction 
        and operation of new civilian nuclear power reactors may serve 
        to aggravate the problem of management of high-level nuclear 
        waste including spent nuclear fuel from the reactors;
            (2) the creation of the nuclear waste has a direct effect 
        on the amount of nuclear waste transported in interstate 
        commerce; and
            (3) it is not in the public interest, and it should not be 
        the policy of the United States, to allow the construction or 
        operation in the United States of any additional civilian 
        nuclear power reactor unless a facility for the permanent 
        emplacement of the waste exists with enough capacity for the 
        waste that the reactor is reasonably expected to generate in 
        its lifetime.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to ensure that the United States does 
not aggravate the nuclear waste problem by permitting the creation of a 
new generation of civilian nuclear power reactors without adequate 
capacity in a permanent waste emplacement facility by establishing as 
the nuclear energy policy of the United States that no new civilian 
nuclear power reactor shall be built until adequate waste emplacement 
capacity is available.

SEC. 4. NUCLEAR ENERGY POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES.

    (a) Adequate Emplacement Facility.--No civilian nuclear power 
reactor shall be built after the date of enactment of this Act until--
            (1) there is a facility licensed by the United States for 
        the permanent emplacement of high-level radioactive waste 
        (including spent nuclear fuel) from the reactor; and
            (2) there is an adequate volume of capacity within the 
        emplacement facility to accept all of the high-level 
        radioactive waste (including spent nuclear fuel) that will be 
        generated by the reactor during the reasonably foreseeable 
        operational lifetime of the reactor.
    (b) Generation of Spent Fuel.--At no time shall the aggregate 
volume of high-level radioactive waste (including spent nuclear fuel) 
that is generated, or reasonably expected to be generated, by all 
civilian power reactors on which federally authorized construction was 
begun after the date of enactment of this Act exceed the total volume 
of capacity available in facilities licensed by the United States for 
the permanent emplacement of the high-level radioactive waste 
(including spent nuclear fuel).

SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT.

    Any affected citizen may enforce this Act by bringing a civil 
action in the United States district court for the district in which 
the person resides or in the United States District Court for the 
District of Columbia.
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