[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 107 (Thursday, June 26, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6292-S6294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DOMENICI (for himself, Mr. Sessions, Ms. Landrieu, and Ms. 
        Murkowski):
  S. 3215. A bill to require the Secretary of Energy to enter into 
cooperative agreements with private entities to share the cost of 
obtaining construction and operating licenses for certain types of 
recycling facilities, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, on behalf of 
myself and Senators Sessions, Murkowski, and Landrieu, a bill that 
establishes the foundation for a sustainable nuclear fuel cycle for the 
U.S. A sustainable nuclear fuel cycle is the key to nuclear energy 
reaching its full potential to provide the large scale base load 
electrical generating capacity our country needs, while reducing 
greenhouse gas emissions. Today, nuclear energy provides nearly 20 
percent of our electricity generation capacity and does so more 
reliably, and with a lower cost per kilowatt hour than coal, with 
essentially no greenhouse gas emissions. In the decades to come, we 
will need nuclear energy to play an even greater role, not only in 
electrical generation, but also in the transportation and industrial 
sectors, if we are to achieve the reductions in greenhouse gas 
emissions needed to address the challenge of global climate change. The 
Strengthening Management of Advanced Recycling Technologies Act, or 
SMART Act, represents the first important step in building the bridge 
to that future.
  The SMART Act promotes the establishment of privately owned and 
operated used nuclear fuel storage and recycling facilities. These 
facilities will help resolve the current deadlock in spent nuclear fuel 
management while providing a means to extract additional energy from 
used nuclear fuel. I believe that a commercially viable used fuel 
recycling strategy, combined with a responsible waste disposition 
strategy, will enable the expansion of nuclear energy necessary to meet 
all our goals for the future of nuclear energy. The SMART Act advances 
this vision through incentives--rather than mandates--for both industry 
and local communities.
  The SMART Act establishes a competitive 50-50 cost share program 
between the Department of Energy and private industry to finance 
engineering and design work and the development of license applications 
for up to 2 spent fuel recycling facilities. The SMART Act restricts 
facility designs to commercial scale facilities that do not separate 
pure plutonium. The recycling technology must also reduce the burden on 
geologic repositories used for ultimate disposal of waste and promote 
extraction of additional energy from used fuel stocks. Beyond these 
restrictions, the choice of recycling technology is left up to 
industry.
  The resulting reference licenses for recycling facilities may then be 
used by industry to construct domestic used nuclear fuel recycling 
capacity. To assist industry in securing the necessary financing for 
these facilities, the SMART Act authorizes DOE to offer long term 
contracts for spent fuel recycling services. All construction and 
financing costs, however, would be born by industry.
  Although ultimate geologic disposition of waste will always be 
needed, interim storage of used nuclear fuel is a

[[Page S6294]]

necessary component of the nuclear fuel cycle infrastructure. To 
encourage development of interim storage facilities the SMART Act 
establishes an economic incentive program for communities and states 
that wish to host a facility within their jurisdiction. All interim 
storage facilities would be privately owned and operated and licensed 
by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The SMART Act incentives are 
designed to encourage the development of two large scale facilities 
with enough capacity to accommodate our annual domestic used nuclear 
fuel generation.
  As with the used fuel recycling facilities, the SMART act authorizes 
the Department of Energy to enter into long term contracts with storage 
facility operators. In addition, the SMART Act allows the Department of 
Energy to enter into agreements with utilities for the settlement of 
all future claims against the department for failure to take title to 
spent nuclear fuel by 1998.
  Currently, the Nuclear Waste Fund established by the Nuclear Waste 
Policy Act of 1982 has a balance of approximately $20 billion and is 
growing by nearly $1.8 billion annually from fees paid by the utilities 
and interest on the fund. Unfortunately, this fund is currently ``on 
budget'' and amounts to little more than an IOU to the U.S. ratepayers. 
The SMART Act will allow access to a small portion of this fund so that 
it can begin working to resolve the nuclear waste issue as it was 
intended.
  The SMART Act establishes a revolving fund from $1 billion of the 
current waste fund as well as the annual interest on the fund. The 
remaining 95 percent of the current waste fund, as well as all future 
fees, would be placed in a legacy fund for the purposes of constructing 
a geologic repository. Expenditures from the revolving fund for the 
provisions of the act could be made without further appropriations but 
would be subject to limitations in appropriations acts. In this way the 
revolving fund could be put to use without being subject to the 
uncertainty of the annual appropriations process while still retaining 
the authority of Congress to oversee the fund.
  The resolution of the used nuclear fuel issue has been deadlocked for 
decades. Fortunately time has been on our side since nuclear energy 
produces so little waste. For example the nuclear waste generated by a 
family of four during their entire lives is only a couple of pounds. 
Some have even said that we do not need to begin recycling used nuclear 
fuel for 30 or 40 years. I do not believe we can wait that long before 
we resolve the used nuclear fuel issue, however. We must begin taking 
steps today that will place us on the path to a secure and sustainable 
nuclear energy industry in the future. We must demonstrate to industry 
and financial institutions the Government's commitment to resolving the 
used nuclear fuel issue. The SMART bill will place us on that path to 
the future.
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