Nuclear - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 55

ownership of all nuclear waste or spent fuel at all reactor sites, transport it to a repository,
and thereafter be responsible for its containment. Ability to retrieve emplaced materials will
be maintained for at least 100 years and possibly for as long as 300 years (Vandenbosch and
Vandenbosch 2007, 109).
Temporary Spent Fuel Storage
The act authorized DOE to provide up to 1,900 metric tons of temporary storage capacity for
spent fuel from civilian nuclear reactors. It required that spent fuel in temporary storage facili-
ties be moved to permanent storage within three years after a permanent waste repository went
into operation. Costs of temporary storage would be paid by fees collected from electric utilities
using the storage.
Monitored Retrievable Storage
The secretary of energy was required to report to Congress by June 1, 1985, on the need for and
feasibility of a monitored retrievable storage facility. The report was to include five different
combinations of proposed sites and facility designs, involving at least three different locations.
Environmental assessments were required for the sites. Construction of an MRS facility in a state
under consideration for a permanent waste repository was prohibited.
State Veto of Selected Site
The act required DOE to consult closely throughout the site selection process with states or Indian
tribes that might be affected by the location of a waste facility. The law allowed a state (governor
or legislature) or Indian tribe to veto a federal decision to place within its borders a waste reposi-
tory or temporary storage facility holding 300 tons or more of spent fuel, but provided that the
veto could be overruled by a vote of both houses of Congress.
Payment of Construction and Operating Costs
A Nuclear Waste Fund was established by the act composed of fees levied against electric utili-
ties to pay for the costs of constructing and operating a permanent repository. The fee was set
by statute at one mill per kilowatt-hour of nuclear electricity generated. Utilities were charged a
one-time fee for storage of spent fuel created before enactment of the law. Nuclear waste from
defense activities was exempted from most provisions of the act, which required that if military
waste were put into a civilian repository, the government would pay its pro rata share of the cost
of development, construction, and operation of the repository. The act authorized impact assistance
payments to states or Indian tribes to offset any costs resulting from location of a waste facility
within their borders ( Congressional Quarterly 1982, 304-310).
Yucca Mountain
In December 1987, Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to designate Yucca Mountain,
Nevada, a permanent repository for all of the nation's high-level radioactive waste (42 U.S.C.
§10172). This amendment was added to the FY1988 budget reconciliation bill signed on December
22, 1987. It set aside a decision Congress made in 1982 declaring that selection of a site would