SCR90

A Concurrent Resolution urging the President of the United States and the United States Congress to annually financially compensate every local unit of government in the United States where there is located a decommissioned nuclear power plant in which spent nuclear fuel is stored.

Whereas, In 1982, President Ronald Reagan and the United States Congress approved legislation entitled the “Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982,” 42 U.S.C. s.10101 et seq., which 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; and

Whereas, The “Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982” law authorized compensation to the local unit of government that agreed to be the interim storage site for stranded nuclear waste to be calculated at a rate of $15 per kilogram of spent nuclear fuel stored in the interim facility, and payable to that municipality from the Nuclear Waste General Fund; and

Whereas, Local units of government throughout the United States in which these nuclear power plants exist have effectively become permanent repositories for the spent nuclear fuel as these plants are decommissioned, since both the federal repository and interim storage sites have never been constructed; and

Whereas, These decommissioned nuclear power plants cannot be redeveloped or repurposed while the spent nuclear fuel remains stored inside them, and as a result, each of the local units in which these decommissioned plants are located have suffered the loss of a property tax ratable, and the property taxes which that ratable brought into municipal coffers; and

Whereas, According to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as of November 2019, there were 17 shut down commercial nuclear power reactors at 16 sites in the United States, in various stages of decommissioning, which includes the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, located in Lacey Township, New Jersey; and

Whereas, In 2017, in an effort to provide financial assistance to these municipalities, United States Congressmen Joe Courtney of Connecticut and Peter Welch of Vermont introduced H.R.3929, entitled the “Stranded Nuclear Waste Accountability Act of 2017”; and

Whereas, The “Stranded Nuclear Waste Accountability Act of 2017” would have required the United States Secretary of Energy to establish and carry out a program to make payments to units of local government where a nuclear power plant that has ceased generating electricity and that stores spent nuclear fuel on site is located, and where those payments were to have been made to the local units of government every fiscal year, and the amount of the payment was to be $15 per kilogram of spent fuel stored at the facility; and

Whereas, While that bill was not enacted in 2017, and was not re-introduced in later sessions of Congress, it provided a fair interim solution to the problem of stranded nuclear waste until such time as a national repository for stranded nuclear waste can be constructed and made operational, and benefiting all the local units of government located in the United States with a decommissioned, or no longer functioning, commercial nuclear power reactor, which includes Lacey Township, New Jersey; and

Whereas, It is therefore critical that the President of the United States and the members of the United States Congress, support and expeditiously approve legislation to provide such annual payments to local units of government in which this nuclear waste is stored in these facilities; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of New Jersey (the General Assembly concurring):

1. The Senate and the General Assembly urge the President of the United States and the United States Congress to enact legislation to annually financially compensate every local unit of government in the United States where there is located a decommissioned or no longer functional nuclear power plant in which spent nuclear fuel is currently stored, until a federal nuclear waste storage facility is constructed and operational in the United States, and the spent nuclear fuel can be relocated to that facility.

2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate or the Clerk of the General Assembly to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Energy, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of the United States Congress elected from this State.

STATEMENT

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.