Industry's legislative wish list seeks Yucca Mt. revamping

Washington (Platts)--27Feb2006

Congress should remove an artificial limit placed on the disposal capacity of
a DOE repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. and allow the technical aspects of
the site, as well as what's needed to support the country's reactors,
determine how much nuclear waste can be emplaced there, according to a senior
Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) official. 

It should be a technical decision, Steve Kraft said of the repository's
disposal capacity. Kraft, who is NEI's director of used fuel management,
called the elimination of the current 70,000 metric ton uranium (MTU) disposal
limit one of the nuclear industry's top five priorities for nuclear waste
legislation. 

He cited the need to move spent fuel to a federal facility as soon as possible
as a leading priority, indicating that could be accomplished by siting federal
interim storage facilities at DOE sites. Kraft noted in response to a question
that the energy secretary has authority under the Atomic Energy Act to site
such a facility at a DOE site, something that Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio)
proposed last year as part of the House's fiscal 2006 energy and water funding
bill. The storage facility would not have to be licensed by NRC if it were a
"purely DOE facility, under a purely DOE order," Kraft said. However, a senior
NRC official indicated earlier the agency didn't agree.

"They [DOE] have our money, we have their fuel; it's time to close the deal,"
said Kraft, who presented the NEI legislative wish list during a media
briefing Feb 23. Nuclear utility customers collectively pay an estimated
$750-million a year into the Nuclear Waste Fund to bankroll the DOE waste
program. In return, standard contracts DOE signed with nuclear utilities in
1983 require DOE to dispose of that waste. DOE failed to meet the original
1998 contract date for the start of disposal operations. Other target dates
have since gone unheeded, and DOE may have a new target date by this summer. 

NEI unveiled its priorities, which also include legislative action to
eliminate the need for an NRC waste confidence rule, as industry and
congressional officials awaited draft waste legislation from DOE. Department
officials have disclosed few details of the proposal, saying only that the
draft bill would transfer federal land around Yucca Mountain that's now held
by different agencies to DOE and would give the repository program greater
access to money paid into the waste fund. As of Feb. 23, the department didn't
know when it would send its legislative proposal to Congress, DOE spokesman
Craig Stevens said. Some DOE officials noted earlier that the draft bill was
under review at the White House Office of Management & Budget. 

Regarding action on waste confidence, Kraft said the rule has grown beyond the
original narrow legal concept involved in the first waste confidence rule NRC
issued in 1977. The existing rule, which NRC is scheduled to reconsider in
2009, states NRC is confident a repository will be operating by the end of
2025 and that spent fuel can be safely stored on the reactor sites in casks
for at least 100 years. That confidence allows NRC to license new reactors and
to renew the licenses of existing ones. 

Actions already taken by Congress show that waste confidence exists, Kraft
said. He pointed to congressional approval in 2002 of the administration's
recommendation that Yucca Mountain be developed as a high-level waste
repository. Last year, he added, comprehensive energy legislation was enacted
that contains financial incentives for the construction of new reactors. 

The concern industry has, Kraft said, is that NRC soon will be hit with
another round of applications for combined construction permit-operating
licenses for new reactors. He said the agency "needs to concern itself with
the licensing and safety of plants. Waste confidence would be a distraction."

The industry also wants to see so-called funding reform, this time including
action to ensure the entire multibillion-dollar waste fund is used only for
its intended purpose. Kraft said industry also thinks it appropriate that
Congress freeze the waste fee at its current level of 1 mill for every
kilowatt-hour of nuclear-generated electricity sold. Under existing law, the
fee would increase if the energy secretary told Congress an increase were
needed and Congress failed to pass legislation prohibiting an increase, Kraft
said. 

Inclusion of the fund's unspent balance in funding reform could bolster
support for that action in the House, where Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has
historically opposed funding reform legislation on the grounds that the entire
fund should be included. However, some budget watchers have countered in the
past that such action would significantly increase the federal budget deficit.
The federal government must maintain a strong commitment to the Yucca Mountain
project, Kraft said of another industry priority. 

There are roughly 55,000 MTU of spent utility fuel in storage today in the
U.S., and the inventory grows at a rate of 2,000 MTU a year. Under the
existing disposal cap at Yucca Mountain, spent fuel from the existing fleet of
nuclear reactors alone, without license renewal, would more than fill the
facility. 

Though NEI discussed its legislative priorities with DOE, Kraft said the
industry group did not receive any feedback from DOE. Kraft added that NEI
does not know if any of its legislative priorities are included in DOE's draft
bill.

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