A Senate panel rejected in early December as part of a climate change bill numerous nuclear-related provisions, including eliminating NRC mandatory hearings on uncontested nuclear plant license applications. But many of the proposals could be reintroduced when the bill comes to the Senate floor for debate next year.

Three Republican senators, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Larry Craig of Idaho, offered several amendments containing a range of proposals to smooth the path for the expansion of nuclear power in the US. The senators called nuclear a clean source of energy and said that should earn it a place in legislation targeting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

But their amendments failed to win approval December 5 during a markup by the Environment and Public Works Committee of the measure, S. 2191, known widely by the names of its two primary co-sponsors, Senators Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican.

The Lieberman-Warner bill seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power industry, natural gas, transportation fuel and industrial sectors to 70% below 2005 levels by 2050. A centerpiece of the bill uses an emissions allowance and trading program to aid these sectors in meeting incrementally increasing targets. Industry is initially awarded a percentage of free allowances to cover its emissions but would have to buy the balance in an open auction. The bill is expected to phase out free allocations to industry in 2030.

Isakson and Craig separately proposed codifying NRC's so-called waste determination decision to clarify that the federal government has an obligation to develop a repository to safely dispose of the utilities' spent fuel. The intent of this provision is to minimize the risks of a legal challenge on the issue of waste disposal and avoid revisiting the waste disposal issue on a license-by-license basis.

The NRC issued in 1990 a "waste confidence" decision stating that spent fuel could be safely stored in spent fuel pools or dry casks without significant environmental impact for at least 100 years and that a repository would be open by 2025 for ultimate disposal of the waste.

One Senate staffer said this provision was particularly important for new plants because the legal challenges pose one of the biggest risks. Having lawmakers declare their confidence in the government's ability to manage spent fuel would deflate a major argument against building new reactors and weaken legal claims by opponents. But the staffer also said the proposal would not change the fact that utilities would still be responsible for safely managing radioactive material. But it would reduce the uncertainty of the government's responsibility, the staffer said.

DOE's current projection for the start of repository operations is 2017, at the earliest, but more likely sometime in 2020 or 2021. Waste confidence is considered critical to NRC's ability to grant new reactor licenses and renew existing plant licenses.

Isakson's amendment offered the most ambitious package of nuclear-related provisions. He proposed including streamlining NRC's new plant licensing review process, reducing financial risks to project developers, and minimizing uncertainties with the management of spent fuel. His amendment also would have provided tax benefits and incentives for building new reactors.

Isakson said he believed there was no need to hold "pro-forma" uncontested hearings in new plant licensing proceedings, a step he called a "waste" of time and money.

His amendment established measures to develop temporary spent fuel storage facilities in states willing to host them.

One amendment offered by Craig would have authorized spent fuel to be stored at the Yucca Mountain, Nevada site. Craig wanted to repeal the capacity limits on the waste at the repository site. He also would have allowed DOE to acquire the rights-of-way to a corridor in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain, which would have allowed a rail spur to be constructed directly to the site.

Both Isakson and Craig wanted also wanted to reduce uncertainty about the handling of waste by directing DOE to enter into contracts for the disposal of spent fuel soon after a license application is filed or docketed with the NRC. Isakson's amendment went further in requiring DOE to commit to taking Greater-than-Class C waste from new plants.

Isakson's amendment would require DOE to settle existing spent fuel claims by paying $150 per kilogram of spent fuel to utilities, based on an annual acceptance rate of 3,000 metric tons of uranium. He also sought to clarify aspects of DOE's loan guarantee program, such as allowing for startup and financing expenses to be included in the project costs eligible for a federally backed loan.

In addition, Isakson wanted to expand the number of projects and reactors eligible for coverage under federal risk insurance, which was established under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The law provides "standby support" to cover the financial impact of delays beyond industry's control that might occur during construction and the initial phases of plant startup for the first six new reactors. The statutes provides for 100% coverage of the cost of delays for the first two new plants, for a maximum of $500 million each, and would cover 50% of the cost of delays, up to $250 million each, for the third through sixth plants.

Isakson's amendment would have doubled the number of projects -- up to 12 reactors -- and allowed for 100% coverage of the associated delay costs. It would have expanded coverage from three to four different reactor designs.

He proposed taking uncertainty out of year-to-year funding for DOE's Nuclear Power 2010 program, a joint government-industry cost-sharing program testing the NRC's licensing process and developing new standardized reactor designs and bringing them to market. His amendment would have authorized appropriations of $527.1 million each year though 2012.

The Department of Labor would have received authorization for $20 million annually from fiscal 2008 through FY-12 for providing training for workers in the nuclear utility and nuclear energy products and services industries.

It would have provided investment tax credits for construction of new reactors and directed DOE to make its uranium stockpiles available for use as reactor cores. Specifically, DOE would have had to provide 50 million pounds of uranium hexafluoride from the stockpile to "owners of coal-fired electric generating facilities rated 5000 megawatts of electric power that either own a nuclear power plant or that have submitted an application or license to construct such a plant by December 31, 2008." Southern Nuclear Operating Co., which plans to submit a combined construction permit-operating license for two new units at its Vogtle site in Burke County, Georgia, would match that description.

Created: December 18, 2007