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JOINT RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF ENERGY AND THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES TO REVIEW NATIONAL POLICY ON USED NUCLEAR FUEL
WE, your Memorialists, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Maine now assembled in the First Regular Session, most respectfully present and petition the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Energy and the Congress of the United States, as follows:
WHEREAS, nuclear utility ratepayers have committed more than $31,000,000,000 in fees and interest, as mandated under the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, for the purpose of establishing a permanent repository for storage of used nuclear fuel from commercial reactors and defense-related high-level radioactive waste; and
WHEREAS,  the ratepayers of Maine Yankee, Maine’s former nuclear power facility, now decommissioned, paid $65,500,000 into the federal Nuclear Waste Fund for nuclear fuel used after the Nuclear Waste Policy Act was enacted in 1982 and are continuing to make payments into the Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Trust Fund to fund a $185,000,000 obligation for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel used prior to 1983; and
WHEREAS,  the United States Government failed to begin accepting commercial used fuel by 1998 as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and by contracts with used fuel owners, and only in 2008 did the United States Department of Energy finally submit an application to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct a permanent used fuel repository; and
WHEREAS,  the expected funding levels for the permanent fuel disposal program in the fiscal year 2009 federal budgets and statements by the Federal Government concerning the fiscal year 2010 federal budgets point to continuing chronic delays for the Yucca Mountain repository, if not the outright termination of the project; and
WHEREAS,  the Federal Government's failure to meet its 1998 statutory and legal obligations to accept used fuel has led to the Federal Government's being found in partial breach of the contracts with nuclear utility owners, leading to federal taxpayer payments to the utilities of about $1,000,000,000 thus far; and
WHEREAS,  in light of the Federal Government’s failure to meet its responsibility, the commercial nuclear industry has embraced an integrated nuclear fuel management program incorporating:
1. Continued safe and secure storage of used fuel at commercial plant sites;
2. Development of 2 Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed private or government-owned centralized interim storage facilities in communities that would host such facilities voluntarily;
3. Continued public and private sector efforts on research, development and deployment of technologies to recycle used fuel in a safe, environmentally responsible, proliferation-resistant and commercially viable way; and
4. Continued review of the permanent repository license application by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and continued policymaker engagement to ensure the safety and security of whatever facilities or sites ultimately are chosen for permanent disposal of the by-products of the once-through or close nuclear fuel cycle; and
WHEREAS,  several prominent national state officials’ organizations, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the American Legislative Exchange Council, have all endorsed immediate establishment of centralized Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed interim fuel storage facilities in voluntary host communities and continued research on the recycling of fuel and other advanced fuel management technologies; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED: That We, your Memorialists, respectfully urge and request the United States Government to protect nuclear utility ratepayers by immediately reducing the fee that sustains and overfunds the Nuclear Waste Fund to a level that will cover only the costs incurred by the Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and local Nevada government units that provide oversight of the permanent used fuel repository program; and be it further
RESOLVED: That We, your Memorialists, also respectfully urge the United States Government to immediately enact legislation expediting the establishment of 2 Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed, private or government-owned interim storage facilities for used commercial nuclear fuel, with community incentives funded by the Nuclear Waste Fund, and requiring the Department of Energy to take possession of, safely transport and store used fuel at these facilities by leasing space at these facilities, and giving first priority to moving fuel from decommissioned plants; and be it further
RESOLVED: That We, your Memorialists, also respectfully urge the United States Government to enact legislation creating an independent panel of esteemed public policy, scientific, environmental, engineering and affected community leaders that would be charged with conducting a long-term strategic assessment of the Nation's used fuel and defense waste management practices and developing specific recommendations on how to proceed in the future while interim storage facilities are being developed; and be it further
RESOLVED: That suitable copies of this resolution, duly authenticated by the Secretary of State, be transmitted to the Honorable Barack H. Obama, President of the United States, to the United States Secretary of Energy, to the President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and to each Member of the Maine Congressional Delegation.