§10109 Biennial report on the spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste inventory in the United States

Summary

Three terms are defined: high-level radioactive waste (as defined in section 2 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982), spent nuclear fuel (as defined in that same law), and standard contract (as defined in 10 C.F.R. 961.3 or any successor rule). By January 1, 2026, and every two years after that, the Secretary of Energy must send Congress a report. The report must say how much the United States has paid each year and in total to holders of standard contracts when the government partially broke those contracts and owed money. It must show how much the Department of Energy has spent since fiscal year 2008 to reduce future such payments, and how much the Department has spent so far to store, manage, and dispose of spent fuel and high-level waste. The report must estimate the total lifecycle costs to store, manage, move, and dispose of the country’s current and expected inventory, including what existing reactors are expected to produce through 2050. It must describe any ways to better track liabilities, any recommendations to improve DOE’s accounting of these costs, what DOE did last fiscal year about interim storage, and what DOE did last fiscal year to develop or use technologies and fuels that make transport or storage safer, including protections against earthquakes, floods, and other extreme weather.