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Summary:
Nuclear energy policy issues facing Congress include the implementation of federal incentives for new commercial reactors, radioactive waste management policy, research and development priorities, power plant safety and regulation, and security against terrorist attacks. The Bush Administration has called for an expansion of nuclear power. For Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear energy research and development, the Administration is seeking $632.7 million for FY2007, an 18.1% increase from the FY2006 appropriation. The request would boost funding for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) from $79.2 million in FY2006 to $243.0 million in FY2007. The higher AFCI funding would allow DOE to begin developing an engineering-scale facility to demonstrate new technology for separating plutonium and uranium in spent nuclear fuel, as part of the Administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Significant incentives for new commercial reactors are included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58), signed by the President August 8, 2005. These include production tax credits, loan guarantees, insurance against regulatory delays, and extension of the Price-Anderson Act nuclear liability system. The act also authorizes $1.25 billion for the design and construction of a nuclear-hydrogen cogeneration plant at Idaho National Laboratory. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States raised concern about nuclear power plant security. The new Energy Policy Act includes several reactor security provisions, including requirements to revise the security threats that nuclear plant guard forces must be able to defeat, regular force-onforce security exercises at nuclear power plants, and the fingerprinting of nuclear facility workers. 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 conduct a detailed physical characterization of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent underground repository for high-level waste. The opening of the Yucca Mountain repository has been delayed from the previous goal of 2010, and DOE currently has no announced schedule for the project. The Administration is requesting $544.5 million for the civilian nuclear waste program in FY2007, $50 million above the FY2006 level. 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 power plants are currently favored over nuclear reactors for new generating capacity. However, some electric utilities are seeking approval of sites for new reactors, and nuclear industry officials have predicted that the incentives in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 will lead to the first new U.S. reactor orders since 1978.
