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Summary:
Nuclear energy policy issues facing Congress include questions about radioactive waste management, research and development priorities, power plant safety and regulation, terrorism, the Price-Anderson Act accident liability system, nuclear weapons proliferation, plutonium disposition, and technology for producing nuclear fuel. Federal funding for nuclear energy research and development was substantially reduced by the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration proposed further cuts. However, in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for FY2002 (P.L. 107-66), Congress generally rejected those reductions. President Bush's FY2003 budget request includes $38.5 million for a Department of Energy (DOE) effort to encourage deployment of new commercial nuclear power plants by 2010. Several bills have been introduced in the 107th Congress to encourage the growth of nuclear power. A number of nuclear provisions are included in comprehensive energy legislation (H.R. 4) passed by the House August 2, 2001, and by the Senate April 25, 2002. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States raised questions about nuclear power plant security. Reactor security provisions were included in a Price-Anderson extension bill passed by the House November 27, 2001 (H.R. 2983). An extra $36 million for nuclear power plant security was provided by the FY2002 supplemental appropriations bill, included in the FY2002 Defense Appropriations Bill (H.R. 3338), passed by Congress December 20, 2001. Disposal of highly radioactive waste has been one of the most controversial aspects of nuclear power. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA, P.L. 97-425), as amended in 1987, requires DOE to begin detailed physical characterization of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent underground repository for high-level waste. President Bush recommended approval of the site February 15, 2002, and Nevada Governor Guinn on April 8, 2002, issued a "state veto" of the site, as allowed by NWPA. On May 8, 2002, the House passed a resolution that would overcome the "state veto" and allow further activity at Yucca Mountain to proceed (H.J. Res. 87). An identical resolution (S.J. Res. 34) was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee June 5, 2002. Whether progress on nuclear waste disposal and other congressional action will revive the U.S. nuclear power industry's growth will depend primarily on economic considerations. Natural gas- and coal-fired powerplants currently are favored over nuclear reactors for new generating capacity. However, rising energy prices and electricity shortages have led some utilities to consider building new reactors. A major part of DOE's budget goes to cleaning up facilities formerly used to produce nuclear weapons. Among the more controversial of these activities is the disposal of plutonium from dismantled weapons, which has stimulated conflict between DOE and South Carolina over plans to build a conversion facility at the Savannah River Site in that state.
