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California State Legislature Calls for Federal Action on Spent Nuclear Fuel
Joint Resolution Passes Senate Following Successful Assembly Vote
SACRAMENTO, CA (August 16, 2024) – The California State Legislature sent a strong message to Congress on Thursday, when the Senate voted 35-0 in favor of Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR) 18. Introduced by Assemblywoman Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel) and Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), AJR 18 also passed on the Assembly floor on August 5. The resolution calls on Congress to prioritize the federal government's legal and contractual obligation to provide a home for the spent fuel that is currently stranded in California and 33 other states across the nation.
“The federal government was legally and contractually obligated to begin removing spent nuclear fuel from our communities back in 1998,” said Assemblywoman Davies. “We are still waiting for that to happen more than 25 years later, which is why this type of resolution is critical. California and other states must demand long overdue federal action to ensure the removal of spent fuel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) and other sites.”
California currently has commercial spent nuclear fuel stored at four locations in San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento and Humboldt counties. These communities have not consented to storing this spent fuel in the long term but have become de facto permanent storage sites due to the federal government’s failure to provide an offsite storage or disposal facility. There are 86,000 metric tons of spent fuel stranded across the United States, and that amount is expected to exceed 100,000 metric tons by 2030.
“This is a growing problem that affects communities across the nation,” said Senator Blakespear. “U.S. taxpayers have paid $10.6 billion in damages to cover the costs of continued onsite storage, and nuclear utility customers have pre-paid $46 billion for the development of a deep geological repository to dispose of spent fuel. This joint resolution serves as a model for the type of bipartisan effort that will be required to find solutions at the national level.”
AJR 18 urges Congress and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to take action on recommendations in the Blue Ribbon Commission’s final report on America's Nuclear Future, including revisions to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. These recommendations are consistent with the policy priorities Spent Fuel Solutions (SFS) adopted late last year. SFS is a coalition formed to encourage the federal government to provide offsite storage and permanent disposal solutions for the spent fuel at SONGS and other nuclear sites across the state and nation.
Since SFS’ formation in 2021, DOE has made significant progress on the spent fuel issue. The department recently unveiled a three-phased consent-based siting process that aims to have one or more
operational consolidated interim storage (CIS) facilities within the next 10 to 15 years. However, DOE cannot achieve this goal unless Congress takes action to amend the current law.
We now look to other states with spent fuel to pass similar resolutions, so the federal government hears loud and clear that it’s time for them to finally deliver on the promise they made to our communities nearly three decades ago. We owe it to future generations to address this issue and should not pass the burden and costs of finding storage and disposal solutions on to them.
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About Spent Fuel Solutions
Spent Fuel Solutions is a group of more than 250 local governments, elected officials, utilities, environmental groups, labor leaders, Native American leaders, school districts, business organizations and other community members who support the relocation of spent nuclear fuel to a federally licensed facility away from our coastline.
