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Forging a Path Forward on U.S. Nuclear Waste Management: Options for Policy Makers by Matt Bowen |January 28, 2021
Nuclear power is considered in many countries a critical facet to maintaining reliable access to electricity during a global transition to low-carbon energy sources. One challenge to its potential in the United States, however, is the current standstill regarding a disposal pathway for spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors. This impasse has a negative bearing on nuclear energy’s ability to supply more zero-carbon electricity and may cost U.S. taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in government liability for failing to meet contractual obligations to take possession of the waste from utilities.
TAKEAWAYS
A recent change in New York law requires local authorities to assess spent nuclear fuel storage facilities at permanently shutdown nuclear power plants as real property for ad valorem tax purposes.
The legislation raises a number of complex valuation issues for owners of shutdown nuclear power plants in New York.
As host communities across the country search for ways to mitigate the revenue impact of permanent plant shutdowns, this may well become a national issue.
On December 31, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo approved legislation subjecting pools and dry cask storage systems storing spent nuclear fuel at closed nuclear power plants to ad valorem taxation.
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America’s nuclear energy situation is a microcosm of the nation’s broader political dysfunction. We are at an impasse, and the debate around nuclear energy is highly polarized, even contemptuous. This political deadlock ensures that a widely disliked status quo carries on unabated. Depending on one’s politics, Americans are left either with outdated reactors and an unrealized potential for a high-energy but climate-friendly society, or are stuck taking care of ticking time bombs churning out another two thousand tons of unmanageable radioactive waste every year.