[ RadSafe ] News: FYI #110: Nuclear Waste Hearing

[John Jacobus]

 FYI #110: Nuclear Waste Hearing

FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science
Policy News
 Number110: November 7, 2007 Web version:
http://www.aip.org/fyi/2007/110.html

Committee Examines Future Cost of Nuclear Waste
Storage

Despite years of study, and the expenditure of
billions of dollars, the problem of how best to
dispose of the nation's nuclear waste remains
unresolved.  As reviewed in FYI #109 (see
http://www.aip.org/fyi/2007/109.html ), there is
disagreement about the feasibility of spent fuel
reprocessing.   The nation's only proposed  repository
beneath Yucca Mountain, Nevada is 20 years behind
schedule.

An October 4 hearing of the House Budget Committee was
all about dollars-and-cents.  The committee heard
testimony about the billions of dollars it will cost
to open Yucca Mountain, and the billions of dollars
of liability settlements that have, and will, be
awarded to utility companies because of delays in
opening the repository.

Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) opened
the hearing by explaining  that the federal government
could have between $7 and $30 billion in total
liability costs because of its contractual failure to
take possession of spent fuel from electric utilities.
In 1983, the Department of Energy signed 76 contracts
to accept this waste beginning in 1998.  Utility
ratepayers have paid $14.8 billion 
into the Nuclear Waste Fund since the contacts were
signed.

Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV) also gave opening remarks. 
"For 25 years, we have studied a hole in the ground to
death . . . we are looking at a hole to no where," he
said, adding that the federal government has spent $10
to $11 billion in developing the Yucca Mountain
repository.  He chided Members of Congress for an
out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach to
the selection of Yucca Mountain as the nation's sole
underground repository.

The first witness to testify was Edward Sproat,
Director of the DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive
Waste Management.  Sproat was an effective witness,
and left little doubt that he would meet or beat his 
deadline to submit a Yucca Mountain construction
license application to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission by June 30, 2008. If the repository holds
to its schedule, the best achievable date for its
opening is March 2017.  This schedule assumes that DOE
will receive its future $1.5 to $2.0 billion annual
requests for the repository.   

The program has historically received $350 to $500
million.  Sproat  warned committee members that
without this funding,  "the repository will not get
built."  Recognizing that this is a steep funding
increase, he  asked the committee to consider reform
legislation allowing DOE to more fully access the
Nuclear Waste Fund.  The Fund now has a balance of
$20.7 billion.  Sproat also told the committee there
would be significant costs if the repository's opening
is slipped.    If the repository is opened in
2017, the total potential liability is estimated to be
$7.0 billion.   

If the opening is delayed to 2020, liability could
increase to $11.0 billion.

Michael Hertz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General,
Civil Division, of the Justice Department was the
second witness.  He explained that 67 cases have been
filed by utilities for costs associated with their
storage of spent nuclear fuel.  In 2000, a federal
court agreed the delay is a breach of contract.  The
government has paid $710 million.  Some industry
observers estimate eventual claims could total $50
billion.

The third witness to testify was Kim Cawley, Chief of
the Natural and Physical Resources Cost Estimates Unit
of the Congressional Budget Office. Cawley testified
that as a result of the legal settlements,
taxpayers are paying for "a decentralized waste
storage system at sites around the country."  He
warned Yucca Mountain's 70,000 metric ton statutory
cap is less than the amount of waste for which the
government will eventually be responsible.   Cawley
noted that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects
to receive 32 license applications for new nuclear
plants in the next few years.

There was considerable discussion following the
testimony about how much of the current and future
Nuclear Waste Fund would be needed to keep the
depository's opening on schedule.  Also discussed was
an increase in the cap on the amount of  waste that
can be stored at the repository.
  
There was also an exchange about how utilities are now
storing their nuclear waste on site.  Sproat remarked
that most plants have ample space for future storage
in dry casks, adding "it's a very safe means of 
storage." While not disagreeing, Chairman Spratt
responded, "It would seem to me that the prudent thing
to do is to put it in one place."

###############
Richard M. Jones
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi at aip.org    http://www.aip.org/gov
(301) 209-3095
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+++++++++++++++++++
"If you guard your toothbrushes and diamonds with equal zeal, you'll probably lose fewer toothbrushes and more diamonds."
- Former national security advised McGeorge Bundy
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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