[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6551-S6553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DOMENICI (for himself, Mr. Craig, Mr. Burr, Mr. Crapo, Mr. 
        DeMint, Mr. Graham, Mr. Hagel, Mr. Thomas, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. 
        Bunning, and Mr. Martinez):
  S. 37. A bill to enhance the management and disposal of spent nuclear 
fuel and high-level radioactive waste, to assure protection of public 
health 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, today I am introducing legislation that 
I believe will place the Department of Energy's nuclear waste program 
back on

[[Page S6552]]

track. I am joined by Senator Craig and others to introduce the Nuclear 
Waste Access to Yucca Bill, or Nu-Way Bill, which I believe will help 
to resolve the issue of nuclear waste once and for all.
  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 1950s when the National Academy of Sciences, 
NAS, reported to the Atomic Energy Commission that burying radioactive 
high-level waste in geologic formations should receive consideration. 
NAS stated that ``radioactive waste can be disposed of safely in a 
variety of ways and at a large number of sites in the United States.''
  In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act after a solid 
consensus had been reached around the major elements of the approach 
broadly outlined by President Carter. When President Reagan signed it 
into law the following January, he called the Act ``a milestone for 
progress and the ability of our democratic system to resolve a 
sophisticated and divisive issue.''
  The Congress was quite optimistic then, so optimistic that we told 
the Department of Energy, DOE, to enter into contracts with utilities 
to begin taking nuclear waste off their hands by 1998 in return for the 
payment of fees. Well, obviously that didn't happen, but the United 
States government continues to collect the fee at 1mil/KWH electricity 
generated by nuclear plants. What did happen was that the utilities 
began to sue DOE for failing to meet its contractual obligation to 
remove spent nuclear fuel from storage at commercial reactor sites. DOE 
has been negotiating with various reactor owners since 1999 over the 
missed deadline for settlement agreements. The first agreement was 
reached in July 2000 which allowed DOE to pay PECO Energy Co. up to $80 
million in nuclear waste fee revenues during the subsequent 10 years. 
However, other utilities sued DOE to block the settlement, contending 
that nuclear waste fees may be used only for the DOE Waste Program and 
not as compensation for missing the disposal deadline. The U.S. Court 
of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed that any compensation would have 
to come from general revenue or other sources than the waste fund.
  Today, commercial spent nuclear fuel continues to be stored at plant 
sites, and DOE is facing more than $6 billion in judgments for failure 
to dispose the spent nuclear fuel. As for the nuclear waste fund, we 
now have more than $19 billion of the ratepayer's money in principal 
and interest.
  In addition to civilian spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy 
stores about 2,500 metric tons of defense waste, which includes 
unreprocessed spent nuclear fuel from its plutonium production 
reactors, naval propulsion reactors, and research reactors at Hanford, 
Savannah River, and the Idaho National Laboratory.
  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. Originally, the Nuclear Waste 
Policy Act required DOE to characterize more than one site for two 
repositories. As the most promising site considered, the Yucca Mountain 
site was selected by DOE to be the first site to be characterized. In 
1987, the act was amended and the Congress directed DOE to focus its 
siting effort on Yucca Mountain alone and terminated the second 
repository program.
  On February 14, 2002, after carrying out the required ``appropriate 
site characterization activities'' at Yucca Mountain to determine its 
suitability, the President recommended Yucca Mountain to Congress as 
being ``qualified for application for a construction authorization for 
a repository.''

  The Nuclear Waste Policy Act provided the Governor of Nevada the 
opportunity to object to the site selection and to submit to Congress 
the reasons. On April 8, 2002, the Governor of Nevada exercised this 
authority and submitted his notice of disapproval and statement of 
reasons. Under the terms of the Act, the Governor's notice had the 
effect of terminating further consideration of the Yucca Mountain site 
until both Houses of Congress passed and the President signed into law 
a joint resolution approving the site.
  The State veto provisions of the act accomplished their intent, which 
was to afford Congress another opportunity to review and determine if 
the objection was sufficient to terminate the program. Based on expert 
opinion, both Houses concluded that the objection was not sufficient, 
and that the Yucca Mountain site is geologically suitable for 
development of the repository. In the national interest, Congress 
approved the Yucca Mountain site, and instructed DOE to file a license 
application for the repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
NRC. The decision has been made. All the scientific work performed to 
date supports the decision.
  With the siting decision made, it will now be up to the EPA to issue 
general standards and for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license 
the facility by evaluating the scientific data and determining 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 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 unintended 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 am introducing today authorizes DOE to permanently 
withdraw 147,000 acres of Federal land from public use currently 
controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, the Air Force, and the 
Nevada Test Site, to satisfy 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 cap was imposed when Congress was considering two rounds 
of repositories. I believe that the capacity of the mountain should be 
determined by scientific and technical analysis, and not by political 
compromises.
  Today, the major facility at the Yucca Mountain site is an 
``exploratory studies facility'' with a 25-foot-diameter, 5-mile long, 
tunnel with ramps leading to the surface. This legislation will allow 
the DOE to 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.
  The ``Nu-Way'' bill also begins to consolidate the defense nuclear 
waste and spent nuclear fuel from defense activities at the Yucca 
Mountain site. The bill requires DOE to file for a permit to build a 
surface receipt and 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 receipt 
and storage facility from the NRC, it may begin moving defense fuel and 
waste to the Nevada Test Site. We are not giving DOE any new authority 
to move spent fuel. DOE currently has authority to transport and 
consolidate defense waste at DOE facilities, with the sole exception of 
Yucca Mountain site. The spent nuclear fuel from our Navy and defense 
activities that kept us safe during the Cold War should be consolidated 
and stored securely at the Nevada Test Site. The defense waste is 
currently stored temporarily in Hanford, Idaho and Savannah River 
sites.

  This legislation further provides that only after the NRC issues a 
construction permit for Yucca Mountain, may the Department of Energy 
begin moving civilian spent fuel to the Nevada Test Site. This 
legislation also lays the foundation to integrate Yucca Mountain 
Repository Program and Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, GNEP, by 
providing that before civilian spent nuclear fuel is shipped to Yucca 
Mountain, the Secretary of Energy must determine if it can be recycled 
within a reasonable time. I might add that the 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 would avoid moving 
waste to Yucca Mountain Site that should be shipped instead to a GNEP 
facility.
  In the long run, this measure provides DOE with the authorities 
needed to execute the Yucca Mountain project for long term emplacement 
and for the

[[Page S6553]]

GNEP program to reduce the volume and toxicity of the material to be 
placed in the repository, thereby eliminating the need for a second 
waste repository.
  This bill will also withdraw land for a rail route Yucca, a vital 
transportation component. There is also a provision that provides that 
appropriations from the nuclear waste fund will not count against the 
allocations for discretionary spending. DOE will have access to the 
full funds in the nuclear waste fund, moneys collected from electricity 
rate payers, our constituents, specifically for developing and 
constructing the waste repository.
  To address the liability problem created by Congress when DOE could 
not remove spent nuclear fuel from the reactor sites, this legislation 
will authorize DOE to revise the standard contract to accept waste from 
new nuclear reactors at a more reasonable schedule. By doing all of 
these things, this bill 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.
  The issue of Yucca Mountain has been addressed repeatedly by Congress 
and Presidents. The legislation I am introducing today will not 
circumvent any environmental standards or regulations, nor will it 
preempt any State or local government rights.
  Despite the great advances that we have made in this Nation on 
nuclear energy, we are still faced with challenges. EIA estimates that 
even with a projected increase in nuclear capacity and generation in 
large, the nuclear share of total electricity is estimated to fall from 
19 percent in 2005 to 15 percent in 2030. This is because our energy 
needs will be great over the next 25 years. For energy security 
reasons, economic reasons and environmental reasons, we must make 
nuclear energy a larger part of our mix. To meet the challenge of 
reducing carbon emissions in order to address climate change, we need 
nuclear energy. And, if we need nuclear energy, we need Yucca Mountain.
  Solving nuclear waste is in the national interest. We can solve this 
problem and I hope we can move forward together in a new way.
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