One of the more notable areas of disagreement between the House and
Senate versions of the FY 2006 Energy and Water Development Appropriations
Bill was the disposal of civilian nuclear waste. The House appropriations
subcommittee included rather direct language about the transfer, storage,
and reprocessing of spent nuclear waste (see http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/082.html)
that was the topic of two House Science subcommittee hearings (see http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/118.html.)
The counterpart Senate bill did not include such language (http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/102.html.)
The FY 2006 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill (H.R.
2419) will soon go to President George Bush for his signature. While
the conference report (109-275) language is not legally binding, it
marks the beginning of a new approach to nuclear waste disposal. This
language follows:
"Integrated spent fuel recycling.--Given the uncertainties
surrounding the Yucca Mountain license application process, the conferees
provide $50,000,000, not derived from the Nuclear Waste Fund, for the
Department to develop a spent nuclear fuel recycling plan. Under the
Nuclear Energy account, [see below] the conferees provide additional
research funds to select one or more advanced recycling technologies
and to complete conceptual design and initiate pre-engineering design
of an Engineering Scale Demonstration of advanced recycling technology.
Coupled with this technology research and development effort, funds
are provided under the Nuclear Waste Disposal account to prepare the
overall program plan and to initiate a competition to select one or
more sites suitable for development of integrated recycling facilities
(i.e., separation of spent fuel, fabrication of mixed oxide fuel, vitrification
of waste products, and process storage) and initiate work on an Environmental
Impact Statement. The site competition should not be limited to DOE
sites, but should be open to a wide range of other possible federal
and non-federal sites on a strictly voluntary basis. The conferees remind
the Department that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act prohibits interim storage
of nuclear waste in the State of Nevada. To support the development
of detailed site proposals for this competition, the conferees make
a total of $20,000,000 available to the site offerors, with a maximum
of $5,000,000 available per site. To be eligible to receive these funds,
each applicant site must be able to identify all state, regulatory,
and environmental permits required for permitting this facility, including
identifying any legislative or regulatory prohibitions that might prevent
siting such a facility. The conferees direct the Secretary to submit
a detailed program plan to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations
not later than March 31, 2006, and to initiate the site selection competition
not later than June 30, 2006. The target for site selection is fiscal
year 2007, and the target for initiation of construction of one or more
integrated spent fuel recycling facilities is fiscal year 2010. Any
funds deemed to be in excess of the needs for the integrated recycling
program plan may only be diverted to other activities after submittal
and approval of a formal reprogramming to Congress."
The Nuclear Energy Programs section of the conference report has the
following language:
"The conferees provide $80,000,000 for the Advanced Fuel Cycle
Initiative (AFCI), $10,000,000 over the request. The additional funds
are to be used to accelerate the design activities associated with a
proposed Engineering Scale Demonstration (ESD). This funding will allow
completion of the conceptual design in fiscal year 2006 and enable pre-engineering
design to commence in fiscal year 2007. The conferees direct the Department
to accelerate the development of a separations technology that can address
the current inventories of commercial spent nuclear fuel and select
the preferred technology no later than the end of fiscal year 2007.
The conferees direct the Department to submit the spent nuclear fuel
recycling technology plan to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations
by March 1, 2006."
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