U.S. Senate EPW Committee Hearing on a Discussion Draft Bill, S. __, Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019

See the archived webcast, as well as the written testimony of U.S. Senators Catharine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen (both Democrats from Nevada), opposing the Yucca Mountain dump, as well as the written testimony of NRDC's Geoff Fettus, opposing both the Yucca dump as well as consolidated interim storage facilities targeting New Mexico and Texas.

Although the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Republican Barasso from Wyoming, called this hearing on short notice, opponents to his schemes embodied in the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 dominated the session.

Witness panels announced for May 1st Senate EPW hearing on the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019

See the announcement posted online here, and reproduced below:

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, “Legislative Hearing on a Discussion Draft Bill, S. __, Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019.”

WEDNESDAY, May 1, 2019
10:00 AM
Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building

Panel 1

     The Honorable Catherine Cortez Masto
     United States Senate
     State of Nevada

     The Honorable Jacky Rosen
     United States Senate
     State of Nevada

Panel 2

     Timothy O’Connor
     Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer
     Xcel Energy

     Anthony O’Donnell
     Commissioner
     Maryland Public Service Commission

     Geoffrey Fettus
     Senior Attorney
     Climate and Clean Energy Program at Natural Resources Defense Council

'Simpsons' Canada-Based Episode Pokes Fun At SNC-Lavalin Affair

As reported by Huffington Post Canada.

Meanwhile, in the theater-of-the-absurd-esque non-fiction realm...

Scandal-ridden SNC-Lavalin, of Montreal, has merged with Holtec International, to form a nuclear power plant decommissioning consortium.

Holtec, for its part, hopes to send the irradiated nuclear fuel (high-level radioactive waste) from the decommissioning project contracts it secures to New Mexico, for "interim storage."

Barrasso Revives Nuclear Waste Disposal Legislation

As reported by ExchangeMonitor.

The article reports:

The draft bill contains a set of amendments to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act intended to strengthen the federal government’s ability to develop the geologic repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, along with at least one consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel.

Measures include: authorizing the secretary of energy to enter into an agreement with a private entity for siting, construction, and operation of one or more “monitored retrievable storage” facility for nuclear waste; permanently withdrawing 147,000 acres of federal land in Nye County, Nev., for the Yucca project and transferring authority from the Interior Department to the Energy Department; and requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider construction authorization for the repository within 30 months after the bill is enacted.

(emphasis added)

Update on April 30, 2019 by admin

Here is Barasso's 4/24 press release, linked here.

FEDERAL RESPONDENTS’ REPLY IN FURTHER SUPPORT OF MOTION TO DISMISS (Beyond Nuclear v. NRC)

As filed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Solicitor.