[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 134 (Thursday, September 22, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            FEDERAL NUCLEAR WASTE RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1994

                                 ______


                            HON. FRED UPTON

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 22, 1994

  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, the congressional district I represent runs 
along Lake Michigan's Sunset Coast in western Michigan. It is an area 
of uncommon beauty, made up of farms and small towns nestled among 
rolling hills.
  This is a prosperous area, for the most part, and much of its 
prosperity is based upon the availability of energy for hearing during 
our cold winters, cooling during our warm summers and for powering our 
farms, factories and homes. A large fraction of this energy is provided 
by nuclear power. There are two nuclear powerplants in my district, 
several more elsewhere in Michigan. The Palisades plant is operated by 
Consumers Power while the D.C. Cook plant is operated by American 
Electric Power.
  On the whole, these plants operate reliably and safely. If I didn't 
think so, the people I love most in this world wouldn't be living near 
them. No member of the general public has ever been injured by a 
nuclear powerplant.
  The greatest problem facing nuclear power is the high-level 
radioactive waste produced at every powerplant. This didn't come as a 
surprise long after nuclear power was developed. Waste was seen as a 
problem from the earliest days of the nuclear era, when President 
Roosevelt established the Manhattan project to develop the atomic bombs 
that ended World War II.
  It soon became evident to people of vision that the peaceful use of 
nuclear power offered great promise. The Biblical allusion to ``beating 
swords into plowshares'' was used often and, in his first term, 
President Eisenhower launched an Atoms for Peace Program to advance 
development of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
  The enormous potential that nuclear power offered in the production 
of electricity was recognized early and first harnessed in Adm. Hyman 
Rickover's famous submarines. The heat from fissionable nuclear 
materials was used to boil water; the resulting steam was used to turn 
turbines to make electricity. There have been refinements, but this 
fundamental technology is used throughout America and the world to make 
electricity today. Fully one-fifth of America's electricity is produced 
by nuclear powerplants.
  Hundreds of tons of high-level wastes are created over a reactor's 
lifetime. Most of these wastes are spent fuel, the residue of 
electrical production. These wastes are dangerous and must be isolated. 
Thousands of tons of such waste are piling up at powerplants throughout 
the Nation. At most such locations, the waste is stored in pools of 
water. At a small but growing number of sites, it is stored outdoors in 
so-called dry cask storage.
  It is accumulating in these pools and dry casks because there is no 
other place to put it. Despite years of promises, the Federal 
Government has yet to live up to its commitments to provide a final 
resting place for nuclear waste.
  In the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and its 1987 amendments, 
Congress directed the Department of Energy to have such a facility 
available by January 31, 1998. We authorized a special tax electricity 
to support this facility and about $9 billion has been raised through 
this tax. Every dime of this money came from electricity consumers.
  Strange though it may seem, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Energy has 
made little progress in developing a waste facility beyond a half-
hearted drilling program in Nevada. The Department has admitted that it 
probably won't be able to accept waste before the year 2010, if not 
later. Federal officials have no current plans to accept post-reactor 
waste by 1998 and recently suggested that they had no real obligation 
to do so.
  This is unacceptable to the dozens of communities and thousands of 
people living in the vicinity of nuclear power plants. While most 
perceive no immediate threat to public health from either pool or dry 
cask storage, they would prefer that the waste be stored somewhere 
else. I share this view and this is why I have introduced the Federal 
Nuclear Waste Responsibility Act of 1994, H.R. 5057.
  Before explaining my bill, however, I want to emphasize that the lack 
of progress by the Federal Government can be laid on the doorstep of 
both political parties and many Presidential administrations. The 
current leadership didn't create this problem, but I hope they will 
help us to solve it.
  My bill makes clear that the Federal Government is obligated to take 
title to these wastes and to begin taking possession of such wastes by 
the originally agreed upon date: January 31, 1998. If a permanent 
repository does not exist by then, and there's little chance it will, 
the Secretary is directed to establish a program for the interim 
storage of the wastes on Federal property. Lastly, my bill stipulates 
that no new power plants be licensed until the Secretary of Energy 
certifies that there is a facility licensed by the Federal Government 
to handle the wastes such a facility could be expected to generate.
  These are the final days of the 103d Congress, Mr. Speaker, and even 
a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan like me cannot expect this legislation to 
be enacted before we adjourn next month. I decided to go ahead and 
offer this bill, however, as a means of generating and focusing debate 
on this critical issue. I invite all interested parties to contact me 
if they have proposals for making this legislation better. Through this 
process, I hope to introduce an even better bill early in the next 
Congress.
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       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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