[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 21]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 28444]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      THE SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL ON-SITE STORAGE SECURITY ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM MATHESON

                                of utah

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 14, 2005

  Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign 
introduced federal legislation today to mandate that nuclear waste be 
stored on-site at nuclear power plant sites. I'm proud to join my 
colleague from Nevada, Shelley Berkley, in introducing legislation in 
the House to mandate that nuclear waste be stored on-site.
  The West--whether it is Utah's Skull Valley or Nevada's Yucca 
Mountain--should not be the de facto dumping ground for nuclear waste. 
Storing nuclear waste on site is the safest, most reasonable and most 
effective way of allowing nuclear power plants to continue operating 
while we search for an appropriate long-term storage solution.
  The Utah and Nevada delegations are united on this--Jim Gibbons and 
Jon Porter from Nevada, and Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop from my home 
state of Utah have joined in this fight on the House side and our 
senators, Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch are cosponsors of the Senate 
bill.
  Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the federal government 
has so far only focused on the flawed Yucca Mountain proposal for a 
central repository for spent nuclear fuel rods. Given the wealth of 
concerns about incomplete scientific evidence and falsified 
documentation stemming from the Yucca proposal and the clear gaps in 
transportation security for waste sent to the West, on-site storage is 
a much better solution.
  Dry cask storage--the method proposed by a private entity that wants 
to store waste on the Skull Valley site in Utah--is currently being 
used at 33 nuclear power plants around the country. As approved by the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, dry cask containers can safely store 
waste for at least 100 years. We should not subject citizens to the 
dangers posed by transporting it through their communities when it can 
remain where it is.
  The Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005 would 
require commercial nuclear utilities to transfer nuclear waste from 
spent nuclear fuel pools into dry storage casks. For spent fuel 
currently in pools, a contractor licensed to handle spent nuclear fuel 
would have up to 6 years, to allow sufficient time for cooling and 
construction, to transfer spent nuclear fuel from pools into dry casks. 
Any new spent nuclear fuel produced after enactment, also has no more 
than 6 years to cool, before being transferred into dry casks. Such 
continuous transfer would mean that the pools are never at capacity, 
leaving less waste exposed and making the site safer. This bill would 
also require the Department of Energy to take title of all spent 
nuclear fuel currently in on-site dry cask storage and would even 
compensate the utility companies for expenses associated with 
transferring and storing the waste.
  This means that DOE will be responsible for possession, stewardship, 
maintenance, and monitoring of the spent nuclear fuel on-site, which is 
entirely appropriate. DOE was supposed to begin taking title to spent 
nuclear fuel in 1998, but because of the myriad of technical, 
scientific, legal and political problems surrounding the proposed Yucca 
Mountain nuclear waste repository, this has not happened. Taking title 
to spent nuclear fuel fulfills the federal government's obligation and 
commitment to retake control over nuclear materials. I thank my 
colleagues for their support of this legislation.

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