[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10306-S10308]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DOMENICI (for himself and Mr. Craig):
  S. 3962. A bill to enhance the management and disposal of spent 
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, to assure protection of 
public health and safety, to ensure the territorial integrity and 
security of the repository at Yucca Mountain, and for other purposes; 
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I note the arrival on the floor of the 
distinguished Senator from Nevada. The legislation that I will be 
talking about is of significant interest to the Senator from Nevada. 
But it will take many months on the floor of the Senate before we 
finish.
  Today my fellow Senators I am introducing legislation that I believe 
will place the Department of Energy's nuclear waste program back on 
track.
  As we all know, the history of the Yucca Mountain project has been 
rocky at best. The Yucca Mountain project has a very long pedigree, 
starting back to the late 1950's when the National Academy of Sciences 
reported to the Atomic Energy Commission suggesting that burying 
radioactive high-level waste in geologic formations should receive 
consideration.
  In the 1980s, when Congress decided to pursue a geologic repository, 
we were quite optimistic--so optimistic that we told the Department of 
Energy--DOE--to enter into contracts with utilities that promised that 
we would begin taking nuclear waste off their hands by 1998. Well, 
obviously that didn't happen. What did happen was that the courts found 
that the government is liable for its failure to meet its contractual 
obligation.

  While moving more slowly than planned, DOE's nuclear waste program 
has made progress toward making the goal of a permanent geologic 
repository for nuclear waste a reality. In 2002, the President and 
Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site, and instructed DOE to file a 
license application for the repository with the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission--NRC. That decision has been made.
  With the siting decision made, it will now be up to the NRC to 
evaluate the scientific data and determine whether the repository will 
permanently, and safely, isolate nuclear waste.
  Yucca Mountain is the cornerstone of our national comprehensive spent 
nuclear fuel management strategy for

[[Page S10307]]

this country. Let me be clear: We need Yucca Mountain. We must make 
this program work. I believe the bill introduced today will do that.
  This bill will remove legal barriers that will allow DOE to meet its 
obligation to accept and store spent nuclear fuel as soon as possible, 
without prejudging the outcome of the NRC's repository licensing 
decision.
  The bill I will introduce today authorizes the DOE to permanently 
withdraw 147,000 acres currently controlled by the Bureau of Land 
Management, the Air Force, and the Nevada Test Site, a license 
condition of the NRC.

  This legislation will repeal the arbitrary 70,000 metric ton 
statutory limit on emplacement of radioactive material at Yucca 
Mountain. The capacity of the mountain will be determined by scientific 
and technical analysis.
  The DOE may also begin construction of needed infrastructure for the 
repository and surface storage facilities as soon as they complete an 
environmental impact statement that evaluates these activities.
  This legislation will begin to consolidate the defense waste and 
spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain. The bill requires DOE to file for 
a permit to build a surface storage facility at the Nevada Test Site at 
the same time it files its license application for a repository at 
Yucca Mountain.
  As soon as the department receives the permit for the surface storage 
facilities from the NRC, the department may begin moving defense fuel 
and waste to the Nevada Test Site. The spent nuclear fuel from our Navy 
and defense activities that kept us safe during the Cold War will be 
consolidated and secure at the site.
  Only after the NRC issues a construction permit for Yucca Mountain, 
may the department begin moving civilian spent fuel to the Nevada Test 
Site.
  This bill will withdraw the land for the rail route for Yucca, a 
vital transportation component. There is a provision that also provides 
that appropriations from the Nuclear Waste Fund will not count against 
the allocations for discretionary spending. The DOE will have access to 
the full funds in the Nuclear Waste Fund, monies collected from our 
constituents, to complete this project.

  This bill compliments the short, medium, and long term components of 
the nuclear fuel cycle that I began to talk about this past summer. The 
thinking of how to handle nuclear spent fuel in the late 1970s and 
early 1980s and the way we approached its management is changing, we 
need to acknowledge that change.
  In the short term, according to DOE's most optimistic schedule, the 
NRC's construction permit will not be issued until 2011. The 
Consolidated and Preparation ``CAP'' proposal in the Energy and Water 
Appropriations bill begins to enable DOE to fulfill its contractual 
liability for spent fuel storage before DOE can move spent fuel to 
Yucca Mountain by providing new authorities for DOE to accept and store 
civilian spent nuclear fuel within the states in which it was 
generated.
  In the mid term, this legislation lays the foundation to integrate 
Yucca Mountain and Global Nuclear Energy Partnership--GNEP--by 
providing that before spent fuel is shipped to Nevada, the Secretary of 
Energy determines if it can be recycled within a reasonable amount of 
time. Current plans for GNEP do not include recycling all 55,000 metric 
tons of civilian spent fuel that has already been generated. This 
proposal will avoid moving waste to Nevada that should be shipped 
instead to a GNEP facility.
  In the long term, this measure provides DOE with the authorities 
needed to execute the Yucca Mountain project, and to begin long term 
emplacement, while the GNEP program will reduce the volume of material 
to be emplaced in the mountain, eliminating the need for a second 
repository program.
  The three pieces of the fuel cycle that I have discussed today--
interim storage, GNEP and Yucca Mountain--will establish a 
comprehensive program that will provide confidence that our nation's 
nuclear waste will be managed safely both for current and future 
reactors.
  We can solve this problem and I hope we can move forward together.
  I send to the desk a bill which does all of the things that I have 
just spoken to. I am sure many Senators and their staffs will be 
interested. This will certainly not proceed in any hurry; it will take 
a while. But I intend to move it as best I can. There will be 
opportunities to stop the movement at every opportunity. I am just 
hopeful that we will carry all the way through, as we have in the past, 
and go to conference and take something to the President and see where 
we are.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I want to again express my appreciation to 
the distinguished Senator from New Mexico--I know this is a feeling 
shared by a lot of Senators--for his efforts and leadership over many 
years in the Senate but particularly in the energy area. He has been 
persistent.
  We did pass a good energy policy bill last year. Obviously, he would 
like for it to have been, perhaps, even broader, but we got it done. It 
is making a contribution and will continue to have a positive 
contribution into more diverse energy policy in this country from which 
the American people will benefit.
  I thank the Senator for his leadership on this particular area of the 
nuclear repository. We must deal with this issue. We can do it. His 
input was critical. I thank him.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I thank the Senator. It is a pleasure working with him.
  When I have legislation such as the legislation I just described, 
which is very difficult, and I know we are going to come to spots in 
the Senate, stopovers where we will have to vote because it is good for 
the country, I am counting in the column that if I have done my work, 
will this Senator vote for it, the Senator's name. I believe if we do 
our work and get our votes properly and line up what we propose, a 
Senator such as Senator Lott will not be running around asking people 
what is going on in his State.
  This matter deserves his attention, as it deserves my attention. I 
believe we will get that.
  I thank the Senator.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I rise today to express my strong support 
for the Nuclear Fuel Management and Disposal Act introduced today by 
Senator Pete Domenici. Senator Domenici has long been a courageous 
supporter of dependable, emissions-free nuclear energy, and he is 
largely responsible for the current renaissance of nuclear power in 
this country--with upwards of 30 new nuclear reactors on the drawing 
board to be licensed in the next several years. Senator Domenici's 
landmark legislation will help assure the future of nuclear power in 
this country by providing the necessary legislation for moving forward 
on the long-stalled Yucca Mountain repository and authorizing much-
needed interim storage for spent fuel and high-level waste that has 
been accumulating around the country. For used nuclear fuel that will 
eventually be recycled, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations bill 
approved by the Appropriations Committee earlier this year provides for 
interim storage of commercial spent fuel at Consolidation and 
Preparation--CAP--facilities. Senator Domenici's legislation introduced 
today addresses defense spent fuel and high-level waste that cannot be 
recycled, so that these wastes will be sent to Yucca Mountain for 
storage and eventual disposal. In this way, this bill removes the final 
roadblock to developing new nuclear power in this country.
  And let me say a few words about this ``roadblock'' to Yucca that has 
persisted for so many years. The Federal Government made a promise to 
take possession of spent nuclear fuel in order to safely and 
permanently dispose of it in a geologic repository. We promised to 
begin taking this fuel back in 1998--8 years ago. However, through 
concerted efforts by the state of Nevada and its congressional 
delegation, progress on Yucca has often slowed to a crawl. This is the 
classic NIMBY attitude--``not in my backyard.'' And yet my colleague 
from Nevada, Mr. Reid, has repeatedly called for this Congress and the 
administration to do something to help reduce emissions of greenhouse 
gases because of his concerns about global warming.
  This Congress and this administration have done a great deal to 
promote emission-free power generation. This Congress passed the Energy 
Policy Act last year, which provided financial incentives for new, 
emission-free sources

[[Page S10308]]

of energy, including wind, solar, clean coal--and nuclear. And earlier 
this year, this administration introduced the Advanced Energy 
Initiative--AEI--to support research and development of new energy 
sources--including nuclear power. In fact, the Global Nuclear Energy 
Partnership--GNEP--is one part of the AEI. One goal of GNEP is to 
reduce the amount and toxicity of nuclear waste ultimately destined for 
disposal at Yucca Mountain; another goal is to eventually help expand 
the deployment of emission-free nuclear power in developing countries 
that otherwise would need to depend on burning fossil fuels for their 
growing energy demands. Contrary to Senator Reid's comments about doing 
nothing to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have done a great 
deal to develop emission-free energy in this country and abroad. But 
the deployment of nuclear power requires that we manage the spent fuel 
from nuclear power plants in a safe and responsible manner. One aspect 
of that management strategy must be to open the Yucca Mountain 
repository as soon as possible.
  As Senator Domenici has said, Yucca Mountain is the cornerstone of a 
comprehensive spent-fuel management strategy for this country, but 
Yucca alone cannot meet the government's spent-fuel obligations. 
Through GNEP we will also explore technologies that promise to reduce 
the volume and toxicity of spent fuel. Thus, GNEP, interim storage and 
Yucca Mountain together provide a comprehensive program for safely 
managing our Nation's Nuclear waste.

                          ____________________