Used nuclear
fuel should be moved to a central interim storage facility
until a permanent national disposal facility is
ready.
The safest, most
environmentally sound and cost-effective system for managing
used nuclear fuel is through limited storage at nuclear power
plant sites, followed by safe transportation to a central
interim storage facility as it awaits ultimate geologic
disposal. Yet, even with the clear mandates of a 1982 law and
its 1987 amendments—plus federal court rulings affirming the
Energy Department's obligation to take used fuel from nuclear
plant sites—the federal government has yet to fulfill its
responsibility to accept and dispose of used fuel.
The nuclear
energy industry encourages Congress to instruct the Energy
Department to tell how and when it will meet its obligation to
accept used fuel. Monetary damages for the government’s
failure to live up to contracts with utilities by beginning to
take the fuel in January 1998 should not come from the Nuclear
Waste Fund. This fund has been built up with payments from
electricity consumers. Using it to pay damages would, in
effect, make electricity consumers pay themselves for DOE's
failure to meet its statutory obligation. And it would do
nothing to move used fuel from nuclear power plants around the
country.
Finally, since
several plants now require expanded temporary on-site storage"
as a permanent federal geologic repository at Yucca Mountain,
Nevada, is not scheduled to open until 2010" the industry is
working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure
timely licensing for at-reactor used fuel management
facilities.
With no federal
initiative currently underway for centralized interim storage,
the industry is also pursuing potential private-sector central
interim storage options. The costs of all of these measures
are now being absorbed by electric ratepayers in addition to
the monies being paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund for the
delayed federal program. The government’s potential total
liability for failing to live up to its obligation is
estimated to be as high as $50
billion.
