David Cay Johnston: “I want to briefly reply to a statement that was made a little earlier by the Senator from Nevada, quoting me a few years…”

“I want to briefly reply to a statement that was made a little earlier by the Senator from Nevada, quoting me a few years back saying that nuclear powerplants were running out of space. The fact of the matter is, that statement was true. What has happened since that time is two things. First, there has been a regulatory and technological change in allowing what is called reracking or a greater density of nuclear rods in the swimming pools, using more boron and a change in licensing. The change in licensing, obviously, was not under the control of the utilities, and they have allowed that. I might say that is now at its maximum. Some would say that the NRC is flirting with the safety question by allowing such density of reracking. But, in addition to that, Mr. President, some utilities have been forced to buy their own dry cask storage at great expense. The Surry VA nuclear plant has been required to do so, the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland has been required to do so, and Northern States Power in Minnesota has been required to do so. As mentioned earlier, according to the decision just rendered by the D.C. Court of Appeals, that will become, on January 31, 1998, the responsibility of the Federal Government to pay for.”