Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor today during consideration of H.R. 3053, The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2018:
Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2018. Congress first passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act back in 1982, but more than 35 years later, we still do not have a national solution to address the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel. Instead, it continues to sit on site at our nation’s nuclear power plants.
And this becomes a concern as more and more nuclear power reactors are scheduled to shut down in the coming years, including the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey. As these reactors shut down, the surrounding communities are realizing that the nuclear waste currently stored at these sites will be there indefinitely when the plant closes, absent a workable national solution. This situation underscores the need for interim storage solutions to bridge the gap until a permanent repository is licensed and constructed, wherever that may be.
The bill before us today is a bipartisan compromise that was reported out of the Energy and Commerce Committee by a vote of 49 to 4. Democrats on the Committee, especially Rep. Matsui, worked to craft a bipartisan compromise that establishes an interim storage “pilot program," which will allow for consolidated, temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel, with priority given to waste currently stored at decommissioned nuclear power plants. This will allow us to consolidate waste at a single site instead of 121 sites in communities across the country. One consolidated site will help ensure it is managed more safely and securely, while allowing communities with decommissioned plants to begin working toward redeveloping those sites.
Opponents of this bill have focused on claims that spent nuclear fuel could be transported through many Congressional districts across the country. It’s true - spent nuclear fuel will ultimately need to be transported from power plants to an interim storage site or a repository. But moving nuclear material by rail and truck has occurred frequently for decades, and the NRC notes that thousands of shipments have occurred over decades without incident.
Regardless of your position on the Yucca Mountain project, spent nuclear fuel will need to be transported somewhere in the U.S., unless all of the spent fuel is to be left at the site of a nuclear power plant that may no longer even produce power.
Mr. Speaker, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act is a balanced bill that I support, just as it is supported by the AFL-CIO, the IBEW and other Building Trades. It will begin the process of moving waste out of communities, particularly those home to a shutdown nuclear power plant. It will also help fulfill the commitment to ratepayers who have paid more than $50 billion into the nuclear waste program. I urge my colleagues to vote for the bill.
