US House Seal

From the Office of Utah Congressman Jim Matheson

MATHESON NEWS
Second Congressional District

For Further Information
Alyson Heyrend: (801) 455-5593 (cell)
www.house.gov/matheson

December 14, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Utah, Nevada Join Forces to Stop East Dumping Nuke Waste on the West

House Bill Introduced by Matheson, Berkley

Washington DC-Congressman Jim Matheson and Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley today introduced legislation mandating that nuclear waste be stored on-site where it is produced.  The measure requires the federal government to take responsibility for possession, stewardship, maintenance and monitoring of the waste.

Matheson and Berkley are joined on the bill by Nevada Congressmen Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, as well as Utah Congressmen Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop.

Companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Harry Reid, Senator John Ensign, Senator Robert Bennett and Senator Orrin Hatch.

"The West - whether it is Utah's Skull Valley, or Nevada's Yucca Mountain-is not the de facto dumping ground for this lethal material," said Matheson. "Storing nuclear waste on site is the safest, most reasonable and most effective way of allowing nuclear power plants to continue operating while we search for an appropriate long-term storage solution."

Congresswoman Berkley said, "This legislation will keep radioactive garbage out of Nevada, out of Utah and off of America's roads and railways.  That is good news for Nevadans and for the millions of families living along nuclear waste transportation routes that face the threat of an accident or terrorist attack involving one of these shipments."

Matheson said that under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the government has focused only on the proposed Yucca Mountain site as a central repository for spent nuclear fuel rods.  As scientific, falsified documentation, transportation and other problems with Yucca Mountain have raised doubts that Yucca will open, companies have proposed a private storage facility on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah's west desert.  Matheson said concerns about terrorism, transportation accidents and military jet crashes pose unacceptable risks to the populated Wasatch Front.

"Dry cask storage-the method proposed by Private Fuel Storage in Skull Valley-is currently being used at 33 nuclear power plants around the country.  As approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, dry cask containers can safely store waste for at least 100 years.  We should not subject citizens to the dangers posed by transporting it through their communities when it can remain where it is," said Matheson.

"Yucca Mountain is far too dangerous and far too expensive to ever be completed.  Dry cask storage is a proven technology that is already in use, and all sides agree that waste can be securely isolated in these containers for the next century," Berkley said.  "Dry cask storage also eliminates the need for decades of nuclear waste shipments that would be required under the Yucca Mountain scenario.  Once enacted, our plan will increase national security, decrease the risk to public safety and will save billions of dollars that are now being wasted on efforts to turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear garbage dump."

Summary of the Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005

Amends the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 as follows:

  • Requires commercial nuclear utilities to transfer nuclear waste from spent nuclear fuel pools into dry storage casks within 6 years after enactment or 6 years after the waste is produced, whichever comes first.
  • Requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to take title of all spent nuclear fuel currently in on-site dry cask storage within 30 days of enactment.
  • Requires the spent nuclear fuel on-site storage sites and storage casks to comply with NRC regulations.
  • Requires the Department of Energy to take title to, and full responsibility for the waste at the reactor sites after it has been transferred to dry cask storage in compliance with regulations.
  • Expenditures from the Nuclear Waste Fund will compensate utilities for expenses associated with transferring and storing the waste.

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Alyson Heyrend
Communications Director
240 East Morris Ave. #235
South Salt Lake, UT 84115
(801) 486-1236 (phone)
(801) 455-5593 (cell)
(801) 486-1417 (fax)