[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 89 (Friday, May 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S7632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 COMMERCIAL SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL STORAGE

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I would like to commend the 
Senator from Alaska [Mr. Murkowski] for the statement yesterday on the 
need to develop a timely solution for the management of spent nuclear 
fuel from the Nation's 109 commercial nuclear power plants.
  As the new chairman of the Energy Committee, Senator Murkowski has 
already assumed a leading role in examining America's policy on high-
level radioactive waste management and I appreciate the chairman's 
ongoing commitment to change that policy to ensure that we continue to 
make progress in a program so vital to the national interest.
  Mr. President, the United States has struggled to fashion a workable 
policy on high-level radioactive waste disposal since the Congress 
passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.
  In 1987, President Ronald Reagan signed amendments to that act to 
direct the Department of Energy to study Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a 
likely repository site. A cadre of world-class scientists have been 
conducting first-of-a-kind experiments at Yucca Mountain to determine 
if the site is suitable for the ultimate disposition of spent nuclear 
fuel from civilian nuclear reactors a well as defense high-level 
radioactive waste.
  Electric consumers have committed $11 billion since 1983 to finance 
these studies, a total that includes $563 million collected from 
consumers of nuclear electricity generated in South Carolina. 
Unfortunately, the year 2010 is the earliest possible date that a 
repository might be ready to accept spent fuel.
  In the meantime, nuclear power plants across the country are running 
out of capacity to store spent fuel. By 1998, 26 plants will have 
exhausted existing capacity to store spent fuel, including the Oconee 
and Robinson plants in South Carolina.
  In addition to designating Yucca Mountain, the Nuclear Waste Policy 
Act made the Federal Government responsible for taking title to spent 
nuclear fuel beginning in 1998.
  In order to meet its obligations, therefore, the Federal Government 
must now develop a temporary storage facility for spent fuel from the 
Nation's nuclear power plants. In just 3 years DOE is scheduled to 
assume responsibility for the spent nuclear fuel from commercial 
nuclear power plants. It must begin planning now to build and operate a 
facility to fulfill that obligation.
  Legislation introduced in both the Senate and House would develop an 
integrated approach to spent fuel management, including the 
construction and operation of a single Federal facility to store spent 
fuel until a permanent solution is available. Legislation in both 
Chambers identifies the sensible location for such a storage facility--
the Nevada test site.
  This Federal facility is the most logical location for such an 
interim site. It borders Yucca Mountain, a remote, unpopulated, and 
arid location in the Nevada Desert. Moreover, the site is on land that 
has been dedicated to underground nuclear testing for more than 40 
years, and thus appropriately dedicated to a project like this one.
  Building a central storage facility at the Nevada test site does not 
prejudge the question of whether Yucca Mountain is suitable, but there 
are tremendous advantages to locating it there. Among the most 
appealing is ease of transportation of the spent fuel from storage 
facility to repository.
  Building a central storage facility that is operating by 1998 and a 
repository by 2010 will save electric consumers $5 billion over the 
life cycle of the waste management program. These cost savings will be 
further enhanced, primarily through ease of transportation, if the 
storage facility is located near the repository site.
  Mr. President, the time has come to address the problems that have 
plagued the Department of Energy's nuclear waste management program. We 
can take the first step this year by authorizing and using funds 
already contributed by electricity consumers to develop a central 
storage facility in Nevada.


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