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[Page: S2798]

Direct Spending

Section 401(a)(3) would result in an earlier payment by utilities to the government of about $2.7 billion in one-time nuclear waste disposal fees. The bill would require these fees to be paid no later than the end of fiscal year 2002. Utilities that fail to make these payments in 2002 would have their nuclear operating permits suspended by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. Under current law, these one-time fee payments, along with accrued interest, are due prior to the delivery of nuclear waste to a government storage or disposal facility. Currently, DOE does not expect such a facility to be available until 2010 or later. Thus, the bill would accelerate the payment of these one-time fees by at least 8 years. While this change would result in budgetary savings in 2002, the government would derive no significant benefit over the long run because it would otherwise receive the same amount later, with interest.

Starting in fiscal year 2004, section 401(a)(2) would limit the aggregate fees the government charges each year to electric utilities for disposal of nuclear waste to no more than the amount appropriated from the nuclear waste fund that year. CBO estimates that, under current law, income from these fees would total $630 million annually over the 2004-2007 period and would decline in subsequent years as nuclear power plants are decommissioned. Because S . 104 would make annual fees dependent on future appropriations action after 2003, CBO cannot assume their collection for the purpose of estimating the budgetary impact of the bill. Therefore, we estimate that the bill would cause a loss of offsetting receipts (that is, an increase in direct spending) of $630 million a year from 2004 to 2007 and of smaller amount in subsequent years.

In sum, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would decrease direct spending by $2.7 billion in 2002, but would increase direct spending by $2.5 billion over the following five years.

Pay-as-you-go considerations: None.

Estimated impact on state, local, and tribal governments: Mandates. CBO is unsure whether the bill contains intergovernmental mandates, as defined in UMRA, but we estimate that costs incurred by state, local, and tribal governments as a result of the bill would total significantly less than the threshold established in the law. (UMRA established a threshold of $50 million for 1996, adjusted annually for inflation.)

While S . 104 would, by itself, establish no new enforceable duties on state, local, or tribal governments, constructing and operating an interim storage facility, as required by the bill, probably would increase the cost to the state of Nevada of complying with existing federal
requirements. CBO cannot determine whether these costs would be considered the direct costs of a mandate as defined by UMRA.

Based on information provided by state officials, CBO expects that state spending would increase by as much as $30 million per year until shipments to the facility begin (assuming that they begin in fiscal year 2000) and $5 million per year between that time and the time that the permanent facility at Yucca Mountain begins operations. This additional spending would support a number of activities, including emergency response planning and training, escort of waste shipment, and environmental monitoring. In addition, spending by Nevada counties for similar activities would probably increase, but by much smaller amounts. Not all of this spending would be for the purpose of complying with federal requirements.

These costs are similar to those that the state would eventually incur under current law as a result of the permanent repository planned for Yucca Mountain. DOE currently does not expect to begin receiving material at a permanent repository until at least 2010, while S . 104 would require that it begin to receive material at an interim facility in fiscal year 2000. As a result, the state would have to respond to the shipment and storage of waste at least ten years sooner than under current law. Further, the state's costs would increase because it would have to plan for two facilities.

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