Full Title: Fooled Again: The Nuclear Waste Administration Act
Author(s): Jack Spencer and Katie Tubb
Publisher(s): The Heritage Foundation
Publication Date: August 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Commercial nuclear power provides 19 percent of America’s electricity and has safely generated affordable, reliable, and clean energy for decades. But nuclear technology and the industry have been held back by the utter dysfunction of a federally controlled, centrally planned program for nuclear waste management and disposal. A new bipartisan Senate bill—the Nuclear Waste Administration Act, intended to reform nuclear waste management—does nothing to fix the basic structure of America’s failed system. While the bill may meet some near-term government and industry interests, at best it delays a permanent waste repository for decades, and at worst makes implementing necessary reforms for rational, long-term management almost impossible. Given developments in the past several years to get nuclear waste management on track, Congress must seize the opportunity to put forth an approach that takes advantage of market forces and that properly aligns incentives and responsibility for lasting reform.