TAXPAYER WATCHDOG GROUP, SENATORS BLAST ADMINISTRATION FAILURE TO DISPOSE OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL | Citizens Against Government Waste

TAXPAYER WATCHDOG GROUP, SENATORS BLAST ADMINISTRATION FAILURE TO DISPOSE OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL

Press Release

For Daybooks/Calendar of Events   Contact:  Jim Campi
January 28, 1998(202) 467-5300

 

 The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) will join Senators Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Rod Grams (R-Minn.) and Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) at a news conference to discuss the Clinton Administration’s failure to dispose of spent nuclear fuel as required by law.  The news conference will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, January 30, 1998, and will be held in Room SC-6 (the Senate Terrace Room) of the U.S. Capitol.

Since 1983, consumers of nuclear energy have been required to pay a federal surcharge

that went into the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund.  This fund was intended to pay for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel rods by the Department of Energy (DOE) beginning on January 31, 1998.  Not only has DOE squandered the trust fund, the department has also ignored federal court decisions requiring them to accept the spent fuel.  Thanks to DOE incompetence, taxpayers may wind up paying out an additional $3.3 billion a year to properly dispose of the fuel rods.

Sen. Murkowski has introduced legislation to alleviate the situation.  The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997 (S. 104) would direct DOE to establish an interim waste storage facility until a permanent facility is online.  Similar legislation (H.R. 1270) was passed in the House last year.