Congress Floats Nuclear Waste Bill

A draft proposal to manage high-level radio­active waste from commercial nuclear power plants and defense activities was released in late April by several members of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. The draft bill includes establishing a new federal agency to take over the Department of Energy’s role in managing the U.S. radioactive waste program. The new agency would be directed to build one or more consolidated interim storage sites. It would also be directed to begin the search for a final geological waste repository. The draft bill is intended to comply with recommendations by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, a panel that President Barack Obama created after he canceled development work at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain geological repository. Under the proposal, waste shipments to temporary storage sites would cease if substantial progress is not being made on the permanent repository. The provision might assuage congressional concerns that the temporary sites will become de facto permanent sites.