BILL NUMBER: S8075

SPONSOR: HARCKHAM
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the real property tax law, in relation to including
certain spent nuclear fuel within the definition of real property

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

The purpose of this legislation is to include spent nuclear fuel, from a
nuclear power station that has ceased operations, in the definition of
real property.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Subdivision 12 of section 102 of the Real Property Tax Law is
amended by adding a new paragraph (j) Spent nuclear fuel that is pending
further or final disposal, including fuel stored in a spent fuel pool or
in a dry cask storage system, from a nuclear power station following the
permanent cessation of power operations of such station.
              

Section 2. Establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Currently, spent (used) nuclear fuel is housed at Indian Point Energy
Center in Buchanan, New York, which is located in the 95th Assembly
District, and is owned by Entergy.

For years, the federal government has promised to provide a storage site
for spent nuclear fuel derived from nuclear sites across the country,
but as of today, they have failed to follow through. Thus, facilities
such as Indian Point must be used for storage.

Indian Point's website clarifies how they store such spent nuclear fuel,
"Water serves as a natural - and one of the most effective - barriers to
radiation. This is one of the reasons that used, or spent, fuel is
stored in pools. Rods containing uranium fuel pellets are bundled
together to form one fuel assembly. Each assembly is about 13 feet high
and 8 inches square. After it spends about four years in the reactor
giving off heat, a fuel assembly is spent and ready to be stored in
water in the spent fuel pool."

Initially, some may think that the rods mentioned above are of no worth,
but after research, they would find that they are actually quite valu-
able since they can be used for nuclear reprocessing, which is popular
across Europe and Asia. Reprocessing allows nuclear waste to be repur-
posed as a viable energy source. According to the World Nuclear Associ-
ation's report titled, Processing of Used Nuclear Fuel (Updated February
2018), reprocessing gains 25-30% more energy from the original uranium,
which also reduces the volume of high-level waste.

This legislation will allow spent fuel storage units throughout New York
State to be classified as real property rather than equipment or
personal property, and also grants a government agency the authority to
calculate the valuation.


Ideally, this will give utilities an incentive to seek spent fuel stor-
age sites other than their own utility plants. By doing this, removing
the spent fuel, they will be reducing their tax obligation to the host
community.

The people of New York State will benefit by our nuclear facilities
aggressively encouraging the federal government to comply with its
agreement to store spent fuel or to reimburse the utility for such stor-
age costs. In either event, the host community would no longer unfairly
bear the costs of this additional burden on its property values.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

A. 8746 and S. 8537 of 2017/2018
A. 6638-A and S. 4551-A of 2001/2002
A. 6611-A and S. 4806-A of 1999/2000

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR.STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

Once signed into law, there will be no cost to the state; and only bene-
fit to any local assessing authority that hosts a non-operational facil-
ity where spent fuel is stored.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect January 21, 2021.