23 mission to evaluate any health and safety concerns. No shafts may be excavated until such understanding is reached. The understanding shall also stipulate conditions under which NRC may enter the facility to assess health and safety concerns. T&E facility and DOE spent fuel R&D facilities not subject to NRC licensing. (h) Secretary and State or Tribe which hosts T&E site shall enter into written agreement for consultative and cooperative role in construction and operation of T&E facility. (i) Secretary shall prepare environmental assessment prior to excavating major shafts for T&E facility and Environmental Impact Statement prior to emplacing radioactive materials. Repository site evaluation not limited by this subsection. (j) Commission shall analyze T&E activities to evaluate adequacy of attention to public health and safety. Reports may be submitted to President, Secretary and Congress on any such analyses. Section 12. Secretary shall establish a demonstration program for dry storage of spent fuel. The demonstrations shall include cask, caissons, or silo storage technologies with preference given to utilities with a near-term shortage of storage capacity. The Secretary shall enter into agreements for licensed on-site demonstrations except that the demostrations may be operated, with Commission's concurrence, by DOE while unlicensed if utility is diligently pursuing license and data on demonstration is needed to obtain license. The utility must provide the site and the spent fuel, seek the license, construct the facility, operate the facility, and pay construction, operation and maintenance costs. Secretary to provide consultative and technical assistance, and generic R&D, including an R&D program on dry storage at existing facilities with a maximum capacity of 300 metric tons of spent fuel. Secretary's costs not to exceed 25 percent of authorized program. The remaining costs to be paid from the fund or by the utility involved. Section 13. Secretary shall pay 75 percent of expenses up to $3 million per year of State or Tribe relative to its role from the date a site is identified to the date a site is selected, provided that such state has entered into a cooperative agreement with DOE. Thereafter, the Secretary shall pay $10 million to the States or Tribe where the site is located, from the date site selection is effective to the date that the repository is full. The State or Indian Tribe may use the payment for whatever purpose they deem necessary, and the State must agree to make at least a ten percent payment of the funds received under this section to the localities where the site is located. Section 14. (a) Jurisdiction. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has exclusive jurisdiction over all civil actions regarding final decisions or actions. No Government agency decision or action is considered final prior to effective site selection. Civil actions on constitutional grounds may be brought at any time. (b) Supreme Court. Supreme Court has exlusive review authority over D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decisions, provided that appeals must be filed within 15 days of the decision. (c) Both courts must exercise their power to expedite their determinations. Appeals Court shall rule within 90 days unless the 89-339 0-82--30 24 Constitution requires longer period, or the agency is not enjoined from complying with the Project Decision Schedule. (d) Actions in the Appeals Court must be brought within 30 days of decision or action, except if party did not have knowledge of the decision or action. Section 15. (a) Secretary authorized to enter into contracts for disposal services with persons owning waste, and for other activities pursuant to this Act. Fees charged such persons shall provide funds for the entire program. Each person charged no more than his anticipated pro rata share. Secretary shall establish the criteria in writing for such contracts. (b) NRC precluded from issuing licenses for a production or utilization facility to any person who does not have such a contract unless the Secretary affirms that such person is negotiating with him for a contract. NRC may also condition the issuance of other licenses on the applicant having such contracts. (c) All funds received by the Secretary to be deposited in the Treasury in a nuclear waste fund. (d) Expenditures may be made from the fund as authorized and appropriated by Congress. (e) Secretary can request Treasury to invest excess funds. (f) Fund assets are not subject to apportionment. MAJOR MILESTONES IN H.R. 5016, AS AMENDED DEPICTING INTEGRATION OF T. & E. FACILITY WITH REPOSITORY DEVELOPMENT DOE completes public meeting and publishes environmental assess- July 1, 1983 ment. DOE starts site characterizations DOE selects T. & E. site and begins preconstruction activities DOE completes site characterizations DOE completes hearing on site....... DOE completes repository development report.. DOE selects first site. President decides.... Petition period ends. Congress decides DOE begins onsite T. & E. facility construction.. DOE completes T. & E. construction and begins operation DOE completes construction on extended schedule (option) (25) May 1, 1989 June 1, 1989 June 1, 1990 June 1, 1995 June 1, 1996 COMMITTEE VIEWS Section 2. Definitions. The Committee intends the research and development provisions contained in the bill, as amended, to establish the policy and the authority to overcome the political and institutional problems preventing the disposal of high-level radioactive waste from civilian activities. In this regard, the definitions of the various terms have been carefully constructed to accomplish specified purposes. The term "agency" is defined to include the Executive Branch and independent agencies of the Federal Government. Congress and the judiciary are not included. The term "atomic energy defense activities" is intended to include any activity of the Secretary in carrying out defense related functions. The scope of the bill is not intended to extend over such activities. The term "civilian nuclear activities" includes all nuclear activities other than atomic energy defense activities. This would include all non-military research and development activities related to nuclear energy, any activity serving, or related to, nuclear powerplants used for the production of steam or electricity, and any government agency or quasi-government agency activity related to non-military nuclear activities such as those of NASA and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The term "disposal" is broadly defined so that the repository could be used for discarding any highly radioactive material. The term "disposal package" is defined to include the container in which the radioactive materials are placed plus any material utilized to cover the container once emplaced in the repository, such as bentonite clay which would be used to seal the container from any water that may enter the repository. The term "engineered barriers" includes all of the man made devices and other materials used at the repository site to prevent the release of radionuclides into the native geology. The term "high-level radioactive waste" means all highly radioactive materials other than most types of spent fuel. Spent fuel, which is designated by the Secretary to be technically unsuitable for reprocessing, is included in the definition because this spent fuel is truly a waste material. This type of spent fuel would include spent fuel that contains materials which have undergone multiple reprocessing cycles and that are likely to impede the nuclear reaction process to the extent that another reprocessing cycle would be technically unjustifiable. Also included in this type of spent fuel would be damaged spent fuel not easily introduced into the reprocessing cycle. The term "nuclear waste repository" means a deep geologic facility. Depending on the rock form, deep can be interpreted as anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the surface of the earth. The Committee notes that it does not intend to limit the maximum 28 depth of the T&E Facility, which should be set pursuant to technical requirements. The term "disposal" is specifically used within the definition of a repository as well as other key terms such as high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel. The Committee intends that the T&E Facility should be capable of receiving any highly radioactive material. The term "site characterization" means that process used by the Department of Energy and concurred in by the Commission to determine the suitability of a site to host either a Test and Evaluation Facility or a repository, or both. It does not include the entire siting research process called for in the bill because it does not include preliminary borings, geophysical testing and other investigations needed to determine whether a site characterization should be undertaken. The term "siting research" is used in the bill to include all activities undertaken at the site, including site characterization, preliminary borings and all testing and investigations necessary to determine the suitability of a site for a Test and Evaluation Facility, or a repository. The term "spent fuel" is defined to include any irradiated nuclear fuel that has been removed from a civilian nuclear powerplant, research reactor, or any other experimental-type reactor not operated for any atomic energy defense function. It is defined separately from waste, since it contains valuable unburned uranium and plutonium. The Committee notes that the energy content of spent fuel discharged annually from the existing nuclear powerplants is the equivalent of 250 million barrels of oil. If breeder reactors are used the energy equivalent could be raised to about 12 billion barrels of oil annually. The term "Test and Evaluation Facility" is intended to mean a small-scale demonstration repository, which would not be used for permanent disposal unless scaled-up and licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission using the full panoply of procedures called for in the bill. Section 3. Findings and Purposes. The Committee supports the view of the majority of scientists and engineers, that the technology exists to provide reasonable assurance that high-level radioactive waste or spent fuel can be safely disposed of in a repository. Finding number (3) unequivocally states this view. The Committee finds that although the technology is known, further research, development and demonstration is necessary to integrate the technological components in a deep geological environment into a working system and to establish the data and information to make a reliable decision on the operation of a permanent repository. The bill establishes the federal policy and responsibilities for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste. This purpose is identified in purpose number (1) of the bill. The bill provides a focus for the Secretary of Energy in carrying out the nuclear waste management program currently authorized in the Department of Energy. Since the only program that is currently authorized is a broad research, development and demonstration program, this bill is intended to provide the direction to the Secretary to focus this RD&D program on developing a repository through the intermediate step of the T&E Facility. |