Letter from the Congress of the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Our country faces a mounting challenge when it comes to nuclear energy: the safe, long-term disposal of spent fuel from commercial reactors and leftover waste from defense activity. It's a challenge with a decades-long history.

At the request of the staff to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (“BRC”), we have reviewed whether certain recommendations in the BRC’s July 29, 2011 Draft Report respecting near-term actions by the Department of Energy (“DOE”) or other officers or agencies in the Executive Branch can be implemented under existing law. These recommendations relate to:
(1) Initial steps to site, license and construct consolidated interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel (“spent fuel”);

At the request of the staff to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (“BRC”), we have reviewed the following questions:
1. Is there legal authority for DOE or any other entity to undertake to site a repository for “co-mingled” nuclear materials (i.e., civilian and defense spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW)) at any site other than Yucca Mountain?

Dear Representatives Upton and Shimkus,
At the direction of the President, the Secretary of Energy established the Blue Ribbon
Commission on America’s Nuclear Future and charged it with reviewing policies for
managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. We are serving as the Co-Chairmen of
the Commission and have taken note of your recent comments about the Commission’s
work.
Your comments echo those we have heard from several members of Congress and from
people across the country who believe the United States should not abandon the

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) supports the safe, controlled, licensed, and regulated interim
storage of used nuclear fuel (UNF) (irradiated, spent fuel from a nuclear power reactor) until disposition
can be determined and completed. ANS supports the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s)
determination that “spent fuel generated in any reactor can be stored safely and without significant
environmental impacts for at least 30 years beyond the licensed life for operation.

The nuclear energy industry is committed to legislative reform to create a sustainable, integrated program for federal government management of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) high-level radioactive waste and commercial used nuclear fuel.

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) supports (1) the development and use of geological
repositories for disposal of high-level radioactive wastes and (2) expeditious processing of the
Yucca Mountain license application in an open, technically sound manner. Geological disposal
means placing the wastes hundreds of feet underground and far from the biosphere. The U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is following a legislatively well-defined regulatory
process to evaluate the safety of the proposed Yucca Mountain Site to meet both the scientific