Report to Congress on the Demonstration of the Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Decommissioned Nuclear Power Reactor Sites

This report has been produced at the request of Congress. The House Appropriations Committee Print that accompanied the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, requests that the U.S. Department of Energy (the Department):<br/>…develop a plan to take custody of spent fuel currently stored at decommissioned reactor sites to both reduce costs that are ultimately borne by the taxpayer and demonstrate that DOE can move forward in the near term with at least some element of nuclear waste policy. The Department should consider consolidation of the spent fuel from decommissioned reactors either at an existing federal site, at one or more existing operating reactor sites, or at a competitively-selected interim storage site. The Department should engage the 11 sites that volunteered to host Global Nuclear Energy Partnership facilities as part of this competitive process.<br/>This report discusses the status of the commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) inventory in the United States, at both decommissioned and operating commercial nuclear power reactor sites; summarizes the contractual arrangement the government and utilities have under the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (10 CFR Part 961) (Standard Contract), related litigation, and the financial liabilities resulting from the Department’s delay in performance under these contracts; provides a history of interim storage policy as it relates to commercial SNF in the United States; and identifies actions that would be necessary for the Department to develop an interim storage facility and demonstration program for commercial SNF from the decommissioned commercial nuclear power reactor sites.