Senate Bill Boosts Administration Request for Nuclear
Energy Programs
There are significant differences in the approach that House and Senate
appropriators took to the Administration's FY 2007 request for DOE's
nuclear energy programs. House appropriators, who complained in their
committee report that aspects of the Administration's request were not
well defined, cut the request of $632.7 million by 21% to $499.8 million.
Senate appropriators took a different approach, providing 12.4% more
than what was requested, recommending funding of $711.3 million. The
current budget is $535.7 million.
House committee report language can be read at http://www.aip.org/fyi/2006/070.html
Selections from Senate Committee Report 107-274 for H.R. 5427, the FY
2007 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill, regarding the
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and nuclear fuel reprocessing follow.
The entire report will soon be available at http://thomas.loc.gov/
under "Other Legislative Activity - Committee Reports."
NUCLEAR ENERGY PROGRAMS - OFFICE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY:
"Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.—The Committee
recognizes and appreciates the considerable investment this administration
has made in this area and supports efforts to close the nuclear fuel
cycle. It is imperative that the Federal Government support long-term
research to discover ways to reduce the amount of nuclear waste and
recycle the vast amount of untapped energy that remains in the current
once-through nuclear fuel cycle. Faced with the reality of long-term
storage needs and the fact that our Nation is unlikely to permit and
license more than one permanent repository, our best alternative is
to vastly reduce the amount of waste, the heat content, and the radiotoxicity
of the spent fuel before permanent disposal. The President has proposed
the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership as a multi-pronged technical
approach to close the nuclear fuel cycle and encourage the recycling
of uranium and destruction of long-lived actinides through advanced
reactor technology. The budget supports the development of recycling
technologies that have the opportunity to enhance the proliferation
resistance of existing recycling or separation technologies. By utilizing
the proposed UREX approach, scientists will not separate pure plutonium.
The Committee expects the Department to continue to fully integrate
proliferation resistant controls within the recycling technology.
The Committee has provided additional funding within the National
Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Nuclear Nonproliferation
to support long-term research and deployment of improved nuclear safeguards
to enhance proliferation resistance and to allow for the safe expansion
of nuclear power. The Committee encourages the Department to involve
private industry in the GNEP program through competitive grants.
"University Reactor Fuel Assistance and Support.—From
within available funds provided to the NERI [Nuclear Energy Research
Initiative] program, the Committee recommends $10,000,000 to support
fuels research for the Next Generation Nuclear Reactor. The Committee
is disappointed the Department has eliminated funding for this program
without warning. Universities depend on technical support from the
Department, and the nuclear industry relies on the Universities to
provide academic training to the next generation of nuclear scientists,
reactor operators, and experts trained in health physics. The Committee
is pleased with the success this program has had thus far and recognizes
that a more modest level of funding is appropriate. The Committee
supports this activity again this year and directs the Department
to provide $27,000,000 to support the University Reactor Infrastructure
and Education Initiative that was eliminated in the fiscal year 2007
budget request and strongly encourages the administration to budget
for these activities in fiscal year 2008."
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
There is extensive report language in this section regarding Nuclear
Power 2010, the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative, and the Generation IV nuclear
energy systems initiative. Language on the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative
follows:
"Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative.—The Committee
recommends $279,000,000, an increase of $36,000,000 above the budget
request. The initiative should continue its focus on the technological
underpinnings of the closed fuel cycle through a robust research and
development program that includes the national laboratories, the university
community, industries, and the international research community. The
initiative should also continue to develop designs for the facilities
necessary for demonstrating the technologies and the associated environmental
analyses.
"In working with the Department, the Committee has recommended
significant changes to the budget priorities for GNEP to encourage
increased research and development on fuels, separation, and transmutation
research. The Committee encourages the Department to coordinate the
fuels research within the Office of Nuclear Energy, including research
of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant. Within the Advanced Fuel Cycle
Initiative, the Committee provides $53,800,000 for separations technology,
$60,000,000 for advanced fuels development, $25,000,000 for transmutation
engineering, $35,000,000 for systems analysis. Within the initiative,
the Committee provides $40,000,000 for design of an engineering scale
demonstration of a spent fuel separations facility, which will provide
feedstock of transuranic materials for remanufacture into reactor
fuel and dispose of waste products; $10,000,000 for design of this
advanced fuel cycle facility and the operational support for the separations
facility and burner reactor facility; and $15,000,000 for design of
an advanced burner reactor to be powered by transuranic fuel. In addition,
the Committee recommends $10,000,000 to support the modernization
of Wing 9 of the CMR facility, which contains hot cells capable of
accommodating fuel fabrication for the GNEP program. The Committee
recommends $5,000,000 for the material test station at Los Alamos
to support materials and fuel experiments using fast neutron spectrum
systems. Without the use of the Fast Flux Test Facility, the United
States has lost its domestic fast neutron source needed to conduct
actinide transmutation. The Committee provides $2,000,000 for the
UNLV Research Foundation to extend fuel cycle studies to high temperature
gas reactors. Additionally, the Department is directed to enter into
a 5 year cooperative agreement with the UNLV Research Foundation for
these activities. Finally, the Committee provides $4,000,000 for the
Center for Materials Reliability at the University of Nevada Reno.
"The Committee instructs the Department not to support
any further research with Russia or Russian entities until the Russian
Federation and U.S. Government are able to come to an agreement on
the disposal of 34 tons of Russian weapons-grade plutonium.
"Advanced Fuel Cycle Facility.—The Committee supports
the deployment of an engineering-design scale recycling facility to
demonstrate the feasibility and technical capacity of a demonstration-scale
advanced recycling facility. The Committee has provided direction
in section 311 in the report to the Department to clarify the amount
of spent nuclear fuel that can be used for the demonstration and requires
that the material be removed from the site within 1 year, upon completion
of the demonstration.
"Program Direction.—The Committee recommends $67,608,000
in Program Direction, which includes $7,000,000 for the Federal and
contractor staff to plan, implement, and manage the Advanced Fuel
Cycle Initiative research, development, and demonstration activities.
Note that another section of this report contains language
regarding spent fuel storage, selections of which follow:
"CONSOLIDATION OF COMMERCIAL SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL
"The Committee has included language to provide the
Secretary with expanded authority to consolidate commercial spent
nuclear fuel at a separate facility within a State or at a regional
site. Section 313 of the bill section requires the Secretary of Energy
to appoint a Director of Consolidation and Preparation. Within 180
days of enactment, the CAP Director is required to issue a report
making recommendations to the Secretary regarding the siting of a
facility for the consolidation and preparation of spent nuclear fuel
(‘CAP facility') in each State containing a civilian nuclear
power reactor. Within 90 days of the issuance of the report, the Secretary,
in consultation with the Governor of each State containing a civilian
nuclear power reactor shall designate a site for a CAP facility within
that State. Recognizing that Governors can recommend sites, the Committee
also believes that it is desirable for the Secretary, in selecting
a site, to first consider sites recommended by the Governors.
"The Secretary may determine that it is in the National
interest to designate a regional CAP facility. No regional CAP facility
may be designated in a State in which a State-wide CAP facility has
previously been designated. The Committee believes it is desirable
that States address their own waste needs and the Committee directs
the Secretary to provide sufficient time for a State site to be designated
and licensed before making a decision to designate a regional facility.
A regional facility cannot be located in a State with a designated
and licensed State site. Any site owned by the Federal Government,
and any site that can be purchased from a willing seller may be designated
as a CAP facility site. Nevada, as the State that has been designated
as the site of the permanent repository is ineligible, along with
any State in which a commercial, away-from-reactor, dry cask storage
facility is authorized. Lands within national parks, wildlife refuges,
or wilderness areas are also ineligible.
"The Secretary shall submit a license application to
the NRC no later than 30 days after the designation of a CAP facility
site. The license for a CAP facility shall be for a term of 25 years,
and shall be non-renewable. The Secretary must submit an environmental
report with the license application to the NRC. The NRC is required
to issue an environmental impact statement in accordance with the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 prior to issuing a license.
Judicial review of the EIS will be consolidated with the review of
the NRC's licensing decision. The NRC is required to grant or deny
a license application for a CAP facility within 32 months.
"In addition, at the request of the owner of a shut-down
reactor, the Secretary of Energy (the ‘Secretary') is required
to assume title to, and responsibility for, spent nuclear fuel at
the site of the shut-down reactor.
"The provisions of this section, along with the Secretary's
obligation to develop a permanent repository under the Nuclear Waste
Policy Act of 1982, provide sufficient and independent grounds for
further findings by the NRC that spent nuclear fuel will be disposed
of safely for purposes of licensing civilian nuclear power reactors.
"Finally, this section provides that the Secretary shall
make expenditures from the Nuclear Waste Fund for the siting, construction
and operation of CAP facilities. Funding for this activity is provided
within the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management."
There is additional language in another section of the Senate report
regarding nuclear waste disposal.
A final note: FYI #88 reviewed the Senate's funding recommendations
in the FY 2007 Energy and Water Development bill for the DOE Office
of Science. A reader asked for clarification regarding earmarked funding:
The House-passed bill provides an increase of 14.1% over the current
budget for the core program. House appropriators then included an extra
$30 million for earmarked projects, for a total recommended budget of
$4,131.7 million.
Senate appropriators took a similar approach, providing an increase
of 16.6% for the core program, and then added another $48.6 million
for earmarks, for a total recommended budget of $4,241.1 million.
Richard M. Jones
Media and Government Relations Division
American Institute of Physics fyi@aip.org
301-209-3095
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