Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017

Floor Speech

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Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. Tonko for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act.

In Sacramento, our publicly owned utility stores spent nuclear fuel at the Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station, despite the fact that the plant has been decommissioned for many, many years, and that the Federal Government has a responsibility to take the fuel.

The continued presence of the spent fuel at Rancho Seco has a direct impact on electricity rates in my district, and prevents the site from being redeveloped. That is why I have continuously been supportive of an interim storage facility for spent fuel.

Today, it is the most viable path to consolidate the fuel housed in over 120 communities across the country. For the last two Congresses, I have cosponsored a bipartisan bill to explicitly authorize the Department of Energy to enter into agreements for consolidated interim storage.

I believe that a stand-alone piece of legislation that creates a pathway for interim storage is the commonsense next step in our national nuclear waste management strategy.

I was opposed to the initial version of H.R. 3053 that came before the Energy and Commerce Committee last year. It tied Yucca Mountain, which I have major concerns with, to interim storage.

Linking these two policies together would effectively maintain the status quo for decommissioned sites across the country, which is unacceptable. That is why I have worked on a bipartisan basis to ensure that the interim storage policy in this bill is decoupled from a permanent repository.

After negotiations in committee, the bill we are considering now authorizes the use of one consolidated interim storage site and creates a path to move spent fuel to that site before a final decision is made on a permanent geologic repository.

It is critically important that we have further clarified the regulatory pathway for interim storage. For that reason, I will be supporting this bill today, despite some of its provisions that I believe are less than ideal.

Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleagues for working with me in a collaborative and bipartisan manner to ensure the Federal Government finally takes the spent fuel stranded in so many of our communities nationwide.

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