Montana committee hears bill that would let state accept, reprocess its own spent nuclear fuel

Summary

Lawmakers and witnesses debated House Bill 623 on whether Montana should authorize handling and reprocessing of the state’s own spent nuclear fuel; proponents urged removing regulatory barriers to future nuclear development, while opponents warned of high costs, long timelines and health and tribal-consent concerns.

Representative Gary Perry opened the Senate Energy Committee hearing on House Bill 623 by saying Montana faces an energy shortfall and that the bill would let the state accept and reprocess its own spent nuclear fuel. "It's clearly recognized that Montana is in a very serious energy crisis. We're currently projecting a short shortfall of 7,500 megawatts over the next 6 to 10 years," Perry told the committee, framing the measure as a step to keep options open for baseload generation.

The bill, as described by Perry, would not authorize taking spent fuel from other states or nations but would allow Montana to develop storage and reprocessing capacity for fuel linked to in-state generation. "All this bill is doing is saying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, we are prepared to handle our own nuclear waste,"…

Montana committee hears bill that would let state accept, reprocess its own spent nuclear fuel

Summary

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