Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds hearing on nuclear waste

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recently held a hearing to discuss options for the interim and long-term storage of nuclear waste and to consider S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act (NWAA).

Murkowski described the issues surrounding nuclear waste disposal, including the federal government’s inability to move used fuel to a repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

“The federal government’s failure to deliver on this promise is now costing taxpayers over $2 million per day,” Murkowski said. “This hearing is an opportunity for us to consider our next steps on nuclear waste. Do we continue to delay in the face of the stalemate over Yucca, or do we try to find another path forward for used fuel storage – especially for communities that are maintaining sites with only used fuel casks left on hand, with the rest of the plant decommissioned?”

Murkowski (R-AK), chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced the NWAA in late April.

The NWAA aims to provide an alternate pathway for used fuel and nuclear waste disposition and would establish the Nuclear Waste Administration, an independent agency that would manage the country’s nuclear waste program; implement a consent-based process for consolidated storage facilities and a new long-term repository; and authorize the siting of a pilot storage facility for priority waste. Similar legislation was introduced in the 113th and 114th Congresses.

Witness Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, discussed the challenges that nuclear waste disposal issues create for the advanced reactor designs currently being developed.

“Burdening these promising technologies with the weight of a floundering federal used fuel management program unnecessarily and unreasonably limits the tools we have to combat climate change at a time when we need every carbon-free generation option available,” Korsnick said.

The hearing also included testimony from representatives from the Idaho National Laboratory, American Nuclear Society Nuclear Waste Policy Task Force and Yankee Atomic Electric Company.