§10173a Content of Agreements

Summary

The Secretary must pay States or Indian tribes that sign benefits agreements set amounts for hosting either a monitored retrievable storage facility or a repository. For a monitored retrievable storage (MRS): $5 million each year before the first receipt of spent fuel, $10 million when the first spent fuel arrives, and $10 million each year after that until the facility closes. For a repository: $10 million each year before the first receipt, $20 million when the first spent fuel arrives, and $20 million each year after that until closure. “MRS” — a monitored retrievable storage facility. “Spent fuel” — high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel. “First spent fuel receipt” — does not include fuel received only for testing or demonstrations. Pre-receipt annual payments start when the agreement is signed and recur on its anniversary. Post-receipt annual payments recur on the anniversary of the first receipt. If the first-receipt payment is made within six months after the last pre-receipt annual payment, that first-receipt payment is cut by one‑twelfth of the pre-receipt annual amount for each full month fewer than six since the last pre-receipt payment. No payment may be made before January 1, 1989; any payment owed for earlier dates must be paid on or after that date. The Secretary generally cannot limit how the money is spent, but each State must give at least one-third of each payment to affected local governments and include a plan for that transfer in the benefits agreement; the Secretary will resolve any dispute about the plan under this law and State law. The benefits agreement must create a Review Panel, include a State or tribe waiver of the right to disapprove a site, require the parties to share licensing information, involve the State or tribe in facility design and health-and-safety documents, and include waivers of impact-assistance rights under sections 10136(c)(1)(B)(ii), 10136(c)(2), 10138(b)(2)(A)(ii), and 10138(b)(3). Payments come from the Waste Fund, and the Secretary’s signature on the agreement commits the United States to make the payments.