Beyond Nuclear

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works CommitteeU.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA, photo at left), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) introduced three bills today aimed at improving the safety and security of decommissioning reactors and the storage of spent nuclear fuel at nuclear plants across the nation.

The three bills address safety of spent fuel storage and decommissioning plans. They are entitled: Safe and Secure Decommissioning Act of 2014; Nuclear Plant Decommissioning Act of 2014 (see the bill, Sen. Sanders' press release, and a one-page summary); Dry Cask Storage Act of 2014. To learn more, see the press release at Sen. Markey's website.

The EPW Committee will hold and webcast a hearing entitled “Nuclear Reactor Decommissioning: Stakeholder Views” on Wed., May 14th, at 10 AM Eastern. Witnesses include CA and VT officials, and spokespeople from NRDC and NEI.

Please urge your two U.S. Senators to support these three bills. You can contact your Senators via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Update on May 15, 2014 by

admin

An archive of the hearing webcast, as well as the witness statements, are posted at the EPW website.

Sens. Boxer, Markey, and Sanders have also issued a press release, making a public a letter they've written to NRC Chairwoman Macfarlane, citing wildfires near the San Onofre nuclear power plant in southern CA. The fires erupted on the same day as the hearing. Southern California Edison evacuated a dozen workers from San Onofre. As the Senators mentioned in their letter, San Onofre's storage pools were designed for 1,600 irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies, but now contain 2,600. The Senators cite a report NRC Chairwoman Macfarlane herself co-authored in 2003, documenting the potentially catastrophic risks of pool fires. They urge that NRC cease and desist from exempting decommissioning reactors from emergency preparedness and security requirements, due to ongoing high-level radioactive waste storage risks.