On September 24, Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) and Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) introduced the Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2024. This bill aims to amend the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to authorize a consent-based siting process for a repository, allow the Department of Energy’s plans to develop consolidated interim storage (CIS) facilities to move forward more quickly, establish a single-purpose organization to manage the spent fuel program, and provide reliable funding for the program. Thank you to Rep. Levin and Rep. Pfluger for authoring and Rep. Scott Peters for co-sponsoring this bill.
Our goal is to encourage the federal government to provide off-site storage and/or permanent disposal solutions for the spent nuclear fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) and other nuclear sites across the state and nation, through a consent-based siting process with input from stakeholders and engaged communities. SCE retired SONGS in 2013, but spent nuclear fuel continues to be stored on site with nowhere to send it.
Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the federal government was required by law and executed contracts with nuclear power providers to begin taking possession of and disposing spent nuclear fuel back in 1998. Today – more than two decades later – it has not yet fulfilled its legal and contractual obligations. Spent nuclear fuel can be safely stored on site at SONGS for decades, but SCE cannot complete decommissioning of the plant and restore the land until the federal government takes action to facilitate an off-site solution.
