Independent Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Act of 1991 - Amends the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to authorize, after January 31, 1998, commercial nuclear utilities under contract with the Secretary of Energy to offset (through credits on certain fee payments) the expenses of providing storage of spent fuel until the date the Secretary first accepts such fuel for a Federal storage or disposal facility authorized by such Act.
S 699 IS 102d CONGRESS 1st Session S. 699 To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to allow commercial nuclear utilities that have contracts with the Secretary of Energy under section 302 of that Act to receive credits to offset the cost of storing spent fuel that the Secretary is unable to accept for storage on and after January 31, 1998. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 20 (legislative day, FEBRUARY 6), 1991 Mr. BRYAN (for himself and Mr. REID) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources A BILL To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to allow commercial nuclear utilities that have contracts with the Secretary of Energy under section 302 of that Act to receive credits to offset the cost of storing spent fuel that the Secretary is unable to accept for storage on and after January 31, 1998. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the `Independent Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Act of 1991'. SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Sec. 1. Short title. Sec. 2. Table of contents. Sec. 3. Definitions. Sec. 4. Findings. Sec. 5. Amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. For purposes of this Act-- (1) the term `Commission' means the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and (2) the term `Secretary' means the Secretary of the Department of Energy. SEC. 4. FINDINGS. The Congress finds that-- (1) approximately 18,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel are now stored at 111 commercial nuclear reactors in the United States; by 1998, approximately 45,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel will be stored at commercial nuclear reactors; (2) the deep geologic high level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel repository envisioned by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101 et. seq.) will not be constructed in time to permit the Secretary to receive and accept high level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel as contemplated by sections 123 and 302 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 10143, 10222), with the result that the Secretary will be unable to perform contracts executed pursuant to section 302(a) of that Act with persons who generate or hold title to high level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel; (3) there have been no orders for the development or construction of civilian nuclear power generating facilities since the enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982; several such facilities that were anticipated when the Act was enacted are not operating now; (4) it does not now appear that a deep geologic high level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel repository will be available before the year 2010 or later; (5) by the time a deep geologic repository is available many currently operating commercial nuclear reactors will need spent fuel storage capacity beyond the maximum now available in at-reactor spent fuel storage pools; nuclear utilities have spent and will spend major sums to construct facilities, including dry cask spent fuel storage facilities, for use in the interim before a deep geologic repository is available; (6) the sums spent for the purposes described in paragraph (5) are the same funds that commercial nuclear utilities intended to contribute to the Nuclear Waste Fund established by section 302(c) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10222 (c)); (7) the technology for long term storage of spent nuclear fuel, including the technology of dry cask storage, has improved dramatically since the enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982; (8) the existing statutory jurisdiction of the Commission, under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2001 et. seq.), the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5801 et. seq.), Executive Order 11834 (42 U.S.C. 5801 note), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1980, and the Commission's various authorization Acts includes the jurisdiction to review and evaluate the spent fuel storage capability of commercial nuclear utilities that hold or seek licenses to receive and possess nuclear materials from the Commission; (9) commercial nuclear utilities that hold licenses to receive and possess nuclear materials are generally well suited to maintain the institutional capability necessary to become stewards of spent nuclear fuel during a period of interim storage; (10) the increased radioactive decay that will occur in spent nuclear fuel that has been stored for interim periods prior to delivery to the Secretary pursuant to section 123 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10143) will ease and facilitate its subsequent handling, transportation, and final disposal; and (11) the median estimated cost to commercial nuclear facilities of acquiring or constructing at-reactor dry storage facilities, plus the long term operating cost, is approximately 0.56 mil per kilowatt-hour under average industry fuel burnup rates. SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO THE NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY ACT OF 1982. Section 302 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10222(a)) is amended by inserting at the end thereof the following new subsection: `(f)(1) After January 31, 1998, if the Secretary does not have a facility available to accept spent fuel from persons holding contracts under this section, those persons may, through credits on fee payments under subsection (a)(2), offset the expenses of providing storage of spent fuel generated after that date (including expenses reasonably incurred before that date in anticipation of the necessity of providing such storage) and until the date of the Secretary's first acceptance of that person's spent fuel at a storage or disposal facility authorized by this Act. `(2) The credits described in paragraph (1)-- `(A) shall be deducted from each remittance of a person's fee payments to the Nuclear Waste Fund from the time that the person meets the conditions of paragraph (1) until the time that the Secretary first accepts that person's spent fuel at a storage or disposal facility authorized by this Act; and `(B) shall be in the amount of 0.56 mil per kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by the person's civilian nuclear power reactor and sold during the period the person is eligible for the credit, or in such other amount as may be certified to the Secretary by the regulatory authority which establishes the rates charged to customers for electricity generated by the person's civilian nuclear power reactor.'.
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
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