Skip to main content

Yucca Mountain Hearing Alert

By Eric McErlain
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a full committee hearing on the Yucca Mountain Project this morning. For a path to all the details on this morning's hearing, as well as transcripts of witness testimony submitted for the record, click here.

Our CEO, Skip Bowman, submitted written testimony to the committee as well. Click here for a press release summarizing the key points. From our release:
Bowman said that DOE must make visible and measurable progress in implementing an integrated national management strategy for used reactor fuel. The department must address several issues to provide stability, clarity and predictability of the nation's used fuel policy and conditions must be in place for near-term movement of used nuclear fuel, assurance of transportation safety and security, and licensing and construction of the repository planned for the Nevada desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The industry's policy priorities for meeting this obligation are:
  • DOE is eight years in arrears of meeting its legal responsibility to manage used nuclear fuel and should move fuel to a secure federal facility as soon as practicable. The failure to do so already is subject of more than 60 lawsuits. Three of these suits, representing a fraction of reactor sites, have resulted in settlements or judgments of $340 million.
  • The nation's policymakers must be confident that policies are in place to ensure the safe and secure storage and disposal of used nuclear fuel. Managing the nation's used nuclear fuel is a firmly established federal obligation and, as such, is a matter of broad national policy. Therefore, Congress should codify its confidence that nuclear waste can be managed safely.
  • The congressional process for funding DOE'’s used fuel management program should be changed so that fees paid to the nuclear waste trust fund can be used as needed. Under the current system, funding for the Yucca Mountain project must compete with other programs despite a dedicated source of revenue ($750 million annually) to pay for the program.
  • Artificial constraints on the repository capacity should be eliminated. Although the statutory limit for Yucca Mountain is 70,000 metric tons of uranium (MTU), the environmental impact statement projected a capacity of up to 120,000 MTU. Additional scientific analyses show that four to nine times the original fuel disposal capacity could be achieved without major changes to the repository design.
  • Federal licensing for the repository should be restructured so that the process is prioritized by four areas: construction of the repository; facilities such as a rail line and other infrastructure that can be developed before a decision on the construction license; authorization to receive fuel; and clarification of the regulations that apply to repository construction and operation and which agencies administer those regulations.
More, including a link to download Skip Bowman's complete testimony, later.

UPDATE: Here's the link to Skip Bowman's (NEI president and CEO)testimony.

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...
23 comments
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more