Bill > SCR77

Introduced Session

This concurrent resolution urges the President and the United States Congress to enact legislation to annually financially compensate every local unit of government in the United States in which there is located a decommissioned or no longer functioning nuclear power plant in which spent nuclear fuel is currently stored, until a federal nuclear waste storage facility is operational in the United States and the spent nuclear fuel can be relocated to that facility. These decommissioned nuclear power plants cannot be repurposed, or redeveloped, as long as the spent nuclear fuel remains stored on the premises. Effectively, these properties are contaminated sites, and have no value for property taxation purposes, causing all other property taxpayers in these municipalities to pay higher property taxes. The "Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982," 42 U.S.C. s.10101 et seq., assigned to the United States Department of Energy the responsibility to site, build, and operate a deep geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. This federal repository was never constructed, so local units of government in which these nuclear power plants exist have effectively become permanent repositories for the spent nuclear fuel once these plants are decommissioned. Therefore, it is fitting for the United States Government, through the Nuclear Waste General Fund, to provide financial compensation to these local units of government for lost property tax revenue in every year in which the federal repository did not exist, and for the burden of becoming the de facto interim storage facilities for stranded nuclear waste.

Committee Categories

Carmen Amato (R)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document