US nuclear fund for waste, not deficit

The recommendation comes as President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders struggle to agree to raise the US borrowing limit and cut spending by an Aug. 2 deadline, and the panel acknowledged the plan "will be difficult in the current political and budgetary climate."

The Nuclear Waste Fund currently sits unspent, used to "reduce the apparent deficit," the report said, and freeing it up would be a political football.

But the government has a "fundamental ethical obligation" to deal with the 65,000 tonnes of toxic nuclear waste piling up alongside reactors around the country an obligation that must be paid for with money collected from rate-payers for that purpose, said the "Blue Ribbon Commission" on waste.

"The overall record of the US nuclear waste program has been one of broken promises and unmet commitments," the panel said in a 154-page report that lays out seven key recommendations on waste, many of which would take years to implement.

The earthquake and tsunami that overwhelmed Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March brought new light to the problem of where to bury toxic waste, an issue that has been around since the United States first began developing nuclear weapons in the 1940s.

Congress had mandated that spent fuel from power plants be buried deep inside Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but the Obama administration cancelled that plan, which was opposed by many in the state, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The White House appointed a group of 15 experts who studied the issue for more than a year.

The group was not tasked with finding new places to put nuclear waste the ultimate not-in-my-backyard-issue and said it is futile to try to "force a top-down, federally mandated solution" over community or state objections.

"The approach we recommend is explicitly adaptive, staged and consent-based," the panel said, noting communities need to be encouraged to volunteer to "host" waste.

"There is no short cut," the report said. "Any attempt to short-circuit the process will most likely lead to more delay."

The group recommended a network of interim storage sites for waste and one or more permanent geologic dumps ideas it discussed at a public meeting in May.

A new government organization to negotiate with communities and build and manage the sites is essential to the plan one that can take a fresh approach after decades of false starts and mistrust, the report said.

The organization would need access to the Nuclear Waste Fund, which grows by $750 million per year money utilities collect from electricity customers.

Utilities could be given permission under existing laws to put the money into a trust account at a third-party bank while the administration and Congress work out how to free the fund for its intended purpose, the panel said.

The government was supposed to begin accepting spent nuclear fuel in 1998, part of the deal with utilities that collect the money.

More than 70 lawsuits have been filed over the government's failure to keep its end of the deal, and taxpayers have so far paid $956 million in settlements as well as $168 million in legal costs, the report said.

Damages could total more than $16 billion by 2020 if the government can't handle the waste by then, and about $500 million more each year after that, the panel said.

"Failure to correct the funding problem does the federal budget no favours in a context where taxpayers remain liable for mounting damages," the report said.

The report will be open for public comment until Oct. 31, and the panel will deliver its final recommendations on the issue to the Energy Secretary by Jan. 29.

Copyright Reuters, 2011