Dr. Conca reports that in January, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Advanced Nuclear Technology Act of 2017, HR 590, that is intended to foster civilian research and development of advanced nuclear energy technologies and enhance the licensing and commercial deployment of such technologies. The bill was sponsored by two Republicans and three Democrats and has now moved to Committee in the Senate, chaired by John Thune (R-SD). At the same time, the latest version of the Interim Consolidated Storage Act was introduced in the House by Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Mike Conaway (R-TX).
This bill would create one or more interim storage facilities to hold spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from all the nation nuclear power plants and would allow the Energy Department to contract for temporary used nuclear fuel storage facilities. The bill would allow the Department of Energy to use interest from the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay site contractors to store the used fuel in facilities approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These bills address two of the most important recommendations made in 2011 by then President Obama Blue Ribbon Commission on U.S. Nuclear Future (the BRC), an entity formed to develop a path forward for nuclear power after the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository was halted. The nuclear industry has been waiting for these bills as a way to break the logjam of bureaucratic nonsense that has hamstrung developing and building the new-design reactors and creating a central place for used fuel that can be burned later in some of these new reactors.
These are not so difficult scientifically but are very difficult politically and legally. In fact, the Department of Energy has paid over $4.5 billion in damages to utilities for not opening a permanent repository and for not taking ownership of the spent fuel as they were supposed to do in 1998.
Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/02/05/can-nuclear-power-rise-from-the-chaos-in-washington/#4c23091d499f
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