ALBUQUERQUE, NM (AP) — U. S. senators from New Mexico and Texas are proposing legislation that could limit companies’ efforts to build transient parking services for spent nuclear fuel from advertising power plants in the United States, as the federal government has yet to identify a permanent solution for radioactive material.
Democrat Martin Heinrich and Republican Ted Cruz on Wednesday introduced legislation banning the use of the federal budget to conduct activities at transit garage sites.
Federal regulators have already authorized a facility in West Texas, and New Jersey-based Holtec International has approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a separate multibillion-dollar facility near the state border in southeastern New Mexico.
Heinrich, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others have voiced opposition to transient storage, saying their states are on the verge of a permanent landfill.
“This is something my state is signed for,” Heinrich said in a statement.
Cruz said that while nuclear power is a reliable way to meet the growing demand for force, Texas communities have concerns.
Until a permanent repository is built, the federal government will remain responsible for prices incurred through advertising by reactor owners to purchase spent fuel at sites across the country. Independent federal auditors have estimated this responsibility at more than $30 billion.
The Government Accountability Office, in its report released last fall, said congressional action was needed to break a deadlock and expand a permanent solution for spent nuclear fuel.
The auditors indicated that approximately 86,000 metric tons of spent fuel are stored at 75 operating or closed nuclear power plants in 33 states and that the amount is expanding to about 2,000 metric tons a year.
The law would require the U. S. Department of Energy to use the U. S. Department of Energy to use the U. S. Department of Energy. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security submits a report on imaginable locations or a description of an imaginable location procedure for long-term temporary garage services and federal warehouses.
A supplemental bill was also presented in the U. S. House through Reps. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico and August Pfluger of Texas.
Some nuclear watchdogs have argued that it would be safer to keep the curtains on reactor sites than to send them across the country for a transient garage and then transport them back when a permanent disposal site is created.
Holtec argued that the operation would be safe, noting that the multilayer lead and metal shipping drums would involve spent fuel and be maintained.
The company did not respond to questions about the bill.