RE: NUCLEAR WASTE REFORM

["Beard, Travis N" <brdt07@nspco.com>]

The Nuclear Energy Institute's home page (http://www.nei.org/) has 
information on this important legislation.  Unfortunately it appears that 
the house will not vote on it this session.

Travis N. Beard
Corp. H.P.
Northern States Power
brdt07@nspco.com
 ----------
From: radsafe
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: NUCLEAR WASTE REFORM
Date: Friday, September 27, 1996 10:44AM

        Attached are comments from the "Citizen Energy Alert Network" on
legislation for Nuclear Waste Reform.  This appears to be very important
legislation.  I am bothered that I do not know more about this bill.  I
have not seen the Senate's Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1996.  Does the bill
adequately address the real health and safety needs of the people of the
United States?  Does the bill spend our nation's limited resources wisely?
I think that our nation's poor performance in providing appropriate methods
of handling waste streams from our radiation industries has been very
costly both in dollars and in helping to form negative, unjustified fears
regarding radiation among our people.  Does this legislation get us on
track?  If so, let's get behind it; if not, let's work to make it what it
should be.  What are your thoughts?


//////////////

        Americans are a House vote and presidential signature away from
having a nuclear waste disposal program that meets the nation's needs.  The
solution is the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1996, which passed the Senate
63-37 on July 31.  House leadership could adopt the Senate-passed version
(S.1936), thereby speeding the bill to the president's desk for approval.

        S.1936 is the first step toward over-hauling the federal
government's waste disposal program.  The bill:

 --      Reaffirms the federal government's responsibility to accept spent
fuel from nuclear power plants.

 --      Establishes an integrated waste management system which will
include storage of spent nuclear fuel at a federal interim storage facility
beginning as early as November 1999.

 --      Provides adequate funding to continue studying the facilities, and
develop a transportation system to move spent fuel from nuclear power
plants to those facilities.

        S. 1936 authorizes the Department of Energy to develop a simple,
safe spent fuel management system with three components:

 --      Construction and operation of a federal interim storage facility at
the Nevada Test Site -- unless DOE finds the Yucca Mountain site to be
unsuitable, and the president and Congress are unable to name an alternate
site.

 --      Construction and operation of a repository.  If the Energy
Department does not find the Yucca Mountain site unsuitable by 1998, the
agency must apply for construction authorization no later than Feb. 1,
2002.  If the site is not licensable, DOE must recommend further action
within six months to ensure safe disposal of spent fuel, including the need
for new legislative authority.

 --      Development of a transportation system.  DOE must take steps to
begin spent fuel transportation in 1999.  The bill provides emergency
planning assistance to affected states, localities and Indian tribes.

        The Clinton administration has vowed to veto the waste bill --
despite changes to the legislation that addressed White House objections.


David Gooden, Ph.D., J.D.
Director, Biomedical Physics
Saint Francis Hospital
Tulsa, OK  74136
email:  gooden@vms.ocom.okstate.edu
Phone:  918-494-1444
FAX:  918-494-1452