HB0131

Official summary

Bill Summary - 22LSO-0249 Bill No.: HB0131 Effective: Immediately LSO No.: 22LSO-0249 Enrolled Act No.: HEA No. 0059 Chapter No.: 103 Prime Sponsor: Burkhart Catch Title: Nuclear power generation and storage-amendments. Subject: Amending requirements for nuclear power generation and storage facilities. Summary/Major Elements: This act amends requirements and conditions for the siting of temporary high-level radioactive waste storage facilities to authorize a temporary storage facility only if the waste is stored on the site of a facility that uses the spent nuclear fuel at a power-generation facility; if the facility has received a license from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); if the facility's operator has submitted a required report on the impacts of the facility; and the operator complies with requirements for providing notices and correspondence from the NRC to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Current law provides requirements that small modular nuclear reactors must meet before or while operating in Wyoming. This act amends those requirements (and applicable definitions) to apply instead to advanced nuclear reactors, which are reactors that are improvements over reactors placed in service before 2021 and that have an NRC-issued license. For both temporary storage facilities and advanced nuclear reactors, the operators of those facilities must submit a report to DEQ on the number of jobs created by the construction and operation of the facility or reactor, the estimated taxes that are generated by the facility or reactor, and all local and state benefits and impacts of the facility and reactor. The operators of both storage facilities and advanced nuclear reactors must send to DEQ copies of all publicly available reports, notifications, and violations that are sent to or from the NRC. Operators must also transmit these reports and this information to emergency management departments of local governments and make the information available on a public website. The act repeals requirements previously enacted for small modular nuclear reactors related to the capacity of the reactor, the construction of the reactor, and the location of the reactor. The act amends public-utility statutes to specify that requirements for reviewing the closure of coal-fired electric-generation facilities and limitations on cost-recovery for coal-fired generation facilities that are closed or retired do not apply to facilities that are to be closed or retired in order to replace the facility with an advanced nuclear reactor. The act amends a tax exemption that previously existed for test or demonstration small modular nuclear reactors and that exempts a tax imposed on the production of electricity by a nuclear reactor. This act provides that no tax shall be imposed on any advanced nuclear reactor, except that, beginning on July 1, 2035, the exemption is only available if 80% or more of the uranium the advanced nuclear reactor uses comes from uranium mines located in the United States. The act requires the Environmental Quality Council and DEQ to promulgate rules to implement the act. The above summary is not an official publication of the Wyoming Legislature and is not an official statement of legislative intent. While the Legislative Service Office endeavored to provide accurate information in this summary, it should not be relied upon as a comprehensive abstract of the bill.