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Summary:
Nuclear energy policy issues facing Congress include whether to provide federal incentives for a new generation of commercial reactors, radioactive waste management, research and development priorities, power plant safety and regulation, terrorism, and the Price-Anderson Act nuclear liability system. The Bush Administration has stressed the importance of nuclear power in the nation's energy policy. For nuclear energy research and development, the Administration is requesting $389.9 million for FY2006, about $14.7 million above the FY2005 appropriation. In addition to that funding, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, Science, and Technology would receive $120.9 million for defense-related management and security at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Nuclear Energy office's total FY2006 funding request of $510.8 million is 5.2% above the comparable FY2005 level, according to DOE. Nuclear provisions are included in energy legislation approved by the House April 21, 2005 (H.R. 6). The bill would extend PriceAnderson coverage for new commercial reactors and new DOE nuclear contracts through the end of 2025. The bill would also authorize a hydrogen-producing demonstration reactor at INL and five other nuclear hydrogen demonstration projects. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States raised questions about nuclear power plant security. Reactor security provisions are in the energy bill approved by the House, including a presidential study of security threats to nuclear facilities, force-onforce security exercises at nuclear power plants, the establishment of federal security coordinators, 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 detailed physical characterization of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent underground repository for high-level waste. Upon releasing the civilian nuclear waste program's FY2006 budget request, program officials announced that the opening of DOE's planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, would be delayed at least two years from the previous goal of 2010. The waste program's funding request of $651.4 million is about 14% above the FY2005 level but only about half the amount that last year's budget justification said would have been needed to open the repository by 2010. DOE officials also announced that a Yucca Mountain license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be delayed by at least a year, to the end of 2005. 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 currently are favored over nuclear reactors for new generating capacity. However, some electric utilities are seeking approval of sites for possible new reactors.
