In a statement, the Ohio Republican called his bill -- the US Nuclear Fuel Management Corporation Establishment Act -- "paramount to enabling a nuclear renaissance in the United States."

He said that "with continuing legal issues over [the] Yucca Mountain [repository program in Nevada] and never ending political games paralyzing this clean energy effort, my hope is that this bill will create a successful framework for addressing the question of where to safely place used nuclear fuel."

This is the second time in as many years that Voinovich, a backer of nuclear power, has introduced legislation to move spent fuel and high-level waste management out of DOE's sphere to a government corporation.

"While the bill is unlikely to see any action this year, I think [Voinovich] wants to both put down a marker for the next Congress and to send a signal to the blue ribbon commission that this is an idea worth considering," a nuclear industry lobbyist said in an e-mail.

Under the bill, the government corporation would have a nine-member bipartisan board of directors appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

The government corporation would not receive any federal appropriations but would be self-sustaining, according to Voinovich's statement, by having access to the Nuclear Waste Fund.

Congress created the federal trust fund in 1982 to bankroll the management, transport and disposal of utilities' spent fuel. Since its inception the fund has collected nearly $30 billion in ratepayer payments.

Roughly $1 billion a year is paid into the fund. Ratepayer payments total more than $750 million a year. Meanwhile, the cost of not disposing of that material is climbing as the federal government accrues waste liabilities.

Co-sponsors of the bill include US Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, both Republicans.

--Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com