[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 4, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   CORRECTION OF PRINTING OF H.R. 5057

                                 ______


                            HON. FRED UPTON

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 4, 1994

  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, on September 19th, I introduced H.R. 5057, 
the ``Federal Nuclear Waste Responsibility Act of 1994,'' to rid my 
State and many other States of high-level nuclear powerplant wastes. I 
learned yesterday that there was a glaring misprint in the printed 
version of the bill, one that changes its meaning significantly. This 
sort of thing happens here on Capitol Hill and the usual reaction is to 
have the bill corrected and reprinted. Since we are at the end of the 
103d Congress, however, I see no reason for the taxpayers to pay for 
another printing. H.R. 5057 will be corrected, expanded and 
reintroduced at the beginning of the 104th Congress. For now, a 
corrected version follows:

                               H.R. 5057

       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 Spend 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. FEDERAL INTEGRATED SPEND FUEL AND HIGH-LEVEL WASTE 
                   MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

       ``(a) In General.--Subtitle E of title I of the Nuclear 
     Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10172 et seq.) is amended 
     by adding at the end the following new section:


``federal integrated spent fuel and high-level waste management program

       ``Sec. 162. (a) Establishment.--The Secretary shall 
     establish and administer in accordance with this section a 
     Federal Integrated Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste Management 
     Program as a means of fulfilling, in a safe, efficient, and 
     cost-effective manner, the responsibility of the Federal 
     Government to take possession and provide for the removal 
     from existing storage facilities of, and take title to, high-
     level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel as provided in 
     section 302(a)(7), and to provide for the management of high-
     level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in accordance 
     with subsection (b).
       ``(b) Components of Program.--The Federal Integrated Spent 
     Fuel and High-Level Waste Management Program shall include 
     the following components:
       ``(1) Development and use of a multipurpose canister system 
     or systems for the transportation, storage, and disposal of 
     spent nuclear fuel.
       ``(2) Development of the transportation infrastructure 
     required to carry out the storage and disposal of high-level 
     radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in accordance with 
     the Program.
       ``(3) Establishment of an interim storage facility for 
     high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, 
     consistent with applicable licensing and environmental 
     protection requirements, by not later than January 31, 1998.
       ``(4) Disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent 
     nuclear fuel in a repository developed under this Act.
       ``(c) Progress Reports.--The Secretary shall submit to the 
     Congress, not later than 120 days after the date of the 
     enactment of this section and annually thereafter, a 
     comprehensive progress report with specific details of how 
     the Secretary is implementing the Federal Integrated Spent 
     Fuel and High-Level Waste Management Program. Each report 
     shall also include a list of recommendations for the 
     continued successful implementation of the Program and any 
     proposed implementing legislation. Prior to submission of any 
     such report, the Secretary shall publish in the Federal 
     Register a notice of the availability of a draft of the 
     report, and shall solicit comments from interested 
     parties.''.

     SEC. 5 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.

                          ____________________