• Permanent Repository License Application. The Department of Energy (DOE) applied in June 2008 to obtain a nuclear waste repository license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Despite the DOE’s March 2010 motion to withdraw this license application with prejudice, the NWSC continues to fully support the progress of DOE’s license application which initiated an extensive scientific, technological, safety and environmental review processes by the NRC.

• Appropriations. To protect future funding for the permanent repository, the annual fees paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) by the ratepayers should be reclassified by Congress as offsetting collections or Congress should create a quasi-government corporation to ensure full annual funding for the program. Adequate and reliable funding from the NWF should be appropriated to the DOE and the NRC to ensure the license application review process is completed as directed in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), as amended. 

• Centralized Interim Facilities. An effective disposal program should consist of: (1) A permanent repository; (2) an integrated transportation plan; (3) centralized interim facilities and/or reprocessing facilities that advance and complement the permanent repository while addressing near-term needs to move the spent fuel. Administration, Blue Ribbon Commission, and legislative efforts should ensure that this moves forward expeditiously.

• Federal or Volunteer Sites. The NWSC supports the DOE developing a plan to take custody of spent nuclear fuel currently stranded at decommissioned reactor sites for consolidation at an existing federal site, operating reactor site(s), or communities that volunteer to host spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste storage facilities. In addition, DOE should also address the need for interim storage and disposal of greater-than-class-C waste. 

• Quasi-Government Corporation. The NWSC also supports removing the nuclear waste disposal program from the annual budget and appropriations process and reforming it as a quasi-government corporation to ensure a stable annual and long-term funding. 

BACKGROUND

Spent Fuel and Defense Waste
Commercial nuclear power plants generate about 2,000 metric tons of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste annually. Approximately 63,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel is currently stored at operating plants and decommissioned sites in 121 locations in 39 states. In addition, DOE estimates 12,800 metric tons of defense waste will need to be disposed at the permanent repository.

Federal Policy
In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), which established the Federal government’s responsibility to provide permanent disposal in a deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from commercial and defense facilities. The NWPA also established that the generators and owners of spent fuel and high-level waste are responsible for disposal costs and must pay a 1 mil per kilowatt-hour fee into the NWF. Electric utilities providing nuclear-generated energy pass this fee through to their customers in the form of electric rates. 

Nuclear Waste Fund
The NWF contains over $34 billion in fee payments and earned interest. Though the Federal government has not fulfilled its obligation to dispose of the waste, payments of more than $770 million continue to be deposited into the NWF annually. The NWSC believes that an effective disposal program should consist of: (1) A permanent repository; (2) an integrated transportation plan; and (3) centralized interim facilities and/or reprocessing facilities that advance and complement the permanent repository while addressing near-term needs. Administration and legislative efforts should ensure that this moves forward expeditiously; (4) consider removing the nuclear waste disposal program from the annual budget and appropriations process and reforming it as a quasi-government corporation to ensure stable annual and long-term funding. 

Government Liability
In 2002, after over 30 years of scientific and technological studies, the President and Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site as suitable for a repository based on the recommendation of the DOE. The NWPA set a January 31, 1998 deadline for the federal government to begin accepting spent fuel and high-level nuclear waste. However, DOE did not meet its deadline. Consequently, nuclear power companies sued DOE for its failure to remove spent nuclear fuel as promised and for damages to cover the costs of continued storage at plant sites. The Courts have ruled that the Federal government is obligated to remove spent fuel and have awarded damages to utilities for DOE’s failure to begin removing waste in 1998. Damages against DOE are mounting as the spent nuclear fuel management program lags behind schedule, the DOE proposes terminating the permanent repository at the Yucca Mountain site; and the DOE Secretary’s Blue Ribbon Commission may not provide recommendations to the national nuclear waste program until 2012. 

Seventy-one breach-of-contract claims have been filed against the DOE since 1998, already resulting in more than $1.2 billion in damages awards paid by the U.S. taxpayers. This amount does not include the $150 million in litigation expenses already incurred by the Department of Justice to defend the breach of contract claims, and now the DOE’s withdrawal of the Yucca Mountain license application from the NRC. In addition, U.S. taxpayers will also foot the bill for the increased liability for storing commercial and defense waste that DOE estimates at $1 billion for each year that the permanent repository is delayed. 

DOE’s failure to fulfill its statutory and contractual obligations to carry out the NWPA is burdening taxpayers with additional liabilities currently estimated as high as $50 billion. This estimate was before the DOE proposed terminating the permanent geologic repository program at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and the Secretary of Energy established a Blue Ribbon Commission to study the national nuclear waste program. 


For further information please contact Katrina McMurrian, Executive Director 337.656.8518