Status of legislation

The Senate passed 69 to 6 legislation to provide a comprehensive nuclear waste policy. This legislation restates some things the Department of Energy is already doing. It modifies some others, and in some cases it provides new authorities, principally in those areas of state participation and in the area of financing of the program. Some of the provisions of the Senate bill are: schedule for a number of items in the disposal of nuclear waste, the first being an area referred to as away-from reactor storage; a timetable for geologic disposal; a plan for the long-term storage of nuclear waste for spent fuels; a financing mechanism; and states participation