After the Obama administration abandoned plans in 2009 to bury nuclear waste at a repository in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, a spot chosen by leading senators more than 20 years earlier, a study commission recommended that a new location be picked through “a consent-based process.”
On Thursday, a group of senators introduced a bill, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act, that would establish such a process, based in part on public comments solicited online by the bill’s sponsors — a practice generally reserved for rules proposed by federal agencies. Call it consent-based legislation.
“The Senate did something highly unusual,” said Per F. Peterson, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a public policy expert. He said the way the legislation was developed resembled the process used by the study commission, which held hearings around the country. Taking public comment “establishes a strong foundation for the legislation to be successful if passed by the Senate and then by the House,’’ he said.
Others are not so optimistic. In the House, there is still strong support for trying to revive the Yucca plan, first proposed in 1987. That effort would depend on the outcome of a lawsuit heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in May 2012. The three judges have not yet ruled.
But the Congressional process thus far has been stunning compared with the process in 1987. At that time, senators from other states that had potential sites, including Texas, Louisiana and Washington, cut a deal to choose Nevada, which was unable to fight it off. After Senator Harry Reid of Nevada became the Democratic leader, though, he cut off funding and the consensus fell apart.
Under the new bill, a new federal agency would be empowered to cut a deal with a state and local governments, subject to approval by Congress. It does not define the elements of such a deal, but the expectation is that the government would offer what amounted to a handsome dowry for an ugly bride: money for roads, universities or other goodies.
In the interim, the bill would allow above-ground storage of nuclear waste in a central location, a temporary resolution to a problem that has arisen as reactors retire and the waste is orphaned.
The bill was introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development; Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the subcommittee’s ranking Republican; Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the ranking Republican member.
Congress leaves town for the Fourth of July recess on Friday, but the Senate could take up the measure later this year.