US Senate members introduce three bills on nuclear plant
decommissioning, spent fuel
Washington (Platts)--15Apr2015/515 pm EDT/2115 GMT
Three bills were introduced in the US Senate on Wednesday "aimed at
improving the safety and security of decommissioning reactors and the
storage of spent nuclear fuel," the bills' sponsors said in a statement.
Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California,
both Democrats, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent, also
introduced the bills in the previous session of Congress last May, but
they were not acted upon.
The Safe and Secure Decommissioning Act of 2015 would bar the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission "from issuing exemptions from its emergency
response or security requirements for spent fuel stored at nuclear
reactors that have permanently shut down until all of the spent nuclear
fuel stored at the site has been moved into dry casks, which are a more
secure and safe option for storage," the sponsors said.
The Nuclear Plant Decommissioning Act of 2015 aims to "ensure that
states and local communities have a meaningful role in the crafting and
preparation of decommissioning plans for retired nuclear plants located
in those areas," and "require NRC to publicly and transparently approve
or reject every proposed decommissioning plan" for such plants.
The Dry Cask Storage Act of 2015 would require all power reactor
operators to develop "an NRC-approved plan that would require the safe
removal of spent fuel from the spent fuel pools and place that spent
fuel into dry cask storage within seven years of the time the plan is
submitted to the NRC. The legislation also provides funding to help
reactor licensees implement the plans and expands the emergency planning
zone for non-compliant reactor operators to 50 miles."
The sponsors said studies by NRC, the National Academy of Science, and
other experts have shown that a spent fuel pool accident "could result
in a spontaneous fire, the release of large quantities of radiation, and
widespread contamination."
The NRC and the Nuclear Energy Institute, however, contend that spent
fuel storage in either pools or dry casks would be safe for decades or
longer.
--Steven Dolley,
steven.dolley@platts.com
--Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh,
keiron.greenhalgh@platts.com
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