[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 8, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S6228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  By Mr. OBAMA:
  S. 1194. A bill to direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to 
establish guidelines and procedures for tracking, controlling, and 
accounting for individual spent fuel rods and segments; to the 
Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, today I introduce a bill that is long 
overdue and would require American nuclear power plants to follow the 
same procedures that we would like to impose on nuclear power plants in 
other countries.
  Each year, the Nation's nuclear power plants produce over 2,000 
metric tons of spent fuel, which is the used fuel that is periodically 
removed from nuclear reactors. According to the Government 
Accountability Office, GAO, spent nuclear fuel is ``one of the most 
hazardous materials made by humans.'' Within minutes, the intense 
radiation in the fuel can kill a person without protective shielding; 
in smaller doses, the fuel can cause cancer.
  In the hands of terrorists, such highly radioactive materials, when 
coupled with conventional explosives, could be turned into a dirty bomb 
that could pose a critical threat to public safety.
  In April of this year, GAO issued a report concluding that 
``[n]uclear power plants' performance in controlling and accounting for 
spent nuclear fuel has been uneven.'' In recent years, three U.S. 
nuclear power plants--Millstone, Vermont Yankee, and Humboldt Bay--have 
reported missing spent fuel. The Millstone fuel was never located, the 
Vermont Yankee fuel was located three months later in a different 
location, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is still 
investigating the missing Humboldt Bay fuel. In all three cases, the 
missing spent fuel had been contained in loose fuel rods or fuel rod 
segments.
  Currently, NRC provides little or no guidance on how nuclear power 
plants should conduct physical inventories of their spent fuel or how 
they must control, store, and account for loose spent fuel rods and 
fragments. NRC also does not conduct routine inspections to monitor 
compliance with regulations relating to spent fuel.
  As a result of its investigation, GAO made a series of 
recommendations for how NRC should improve its regulation and 
oversight. My bill--the Spent Nuclear Fuel Tracking and Accountability 
Act--would implement those recommendations and require NRC to 
establish: 1. specific and uniform guidelines for tracking, 
controlling, and accounting for spent fuel rods or segments; and 2. 
uniform inspection procedures to verify compliance with these 
guidelines. Within six months, NRC would be required to report to 
Congress on its progress in establishing these guidelines.
  Tracking spent nuclear material used in the United States is just as 
important as tracking spent nuclear material in the former Soviet 
Union. This is a common-sense solution to an important problem.
  I urge my colleagues to support this measure.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1194

       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 ``Spent Nuclear Fuel Tracking 
     and Accountability Act''.

     SEC. 2. SPENT FUEL RODS.

       (a) Guidelines.--Not later than 260 days after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
     shall establish--
       (1) specific and uniform guidelines for tracking, 
     controlling, and accounting for individual spent fuel rods or 
     segments at nuclear power plants, including procedures for 
     conducting physical inventories; and
       (2) uniform inspection procedures to verify any action 
     taken by a nuclear power plant to implement those guidelines.
       (b) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
     shall submit to Congress a report describing the progress of 
     the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in establishing the 
     guidelines under subsection (a).
                                 ______