State Regulatory Authority Over Nuclear Waste Facilities

This issue brief explores options for providing states and federal agencies with new regulatory
authorities as one potentially critical element in making a consent-based siting regime for
nuclear waste facilities work. It summarizes key points from a longer analysis prepared by Van
Ness Feldman LLC (VNF) for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Nuclear Waste Initiative, which is
exploring ways to advance the BRC recommendations. Specifically, VNF looked at whether an
arrangement, in which federal agencies give a state some form of regulatory authority over
a nuclear waste facility in exchange for the state’s willingness to host that facility, could be
accommodated under existing law. VNF also considered what changes to current law might be
needed to allow such arrangements in the future.