DOE must prioritize removing nuclear waste from risky locations
H.R. 1012 — Spent Fuel Prioritization Act of 2025 · Filed by Mike Levin (D-CA) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 5, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to require the Department of Energy to prioritize accepting spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from civilian nuclear power plants based on four criteria: whether the reactor is decommissioned or decommissioning, the population density of the area, earthquake hazard risk, and national security concerns. Plants meeting these criteria—especially decommissioned reactors in high-population, high-seismic-risk, or security-sensitive areas—move to the front of the acceptance queue.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a reordering of DOE acceptance priorities to favor high-risk locations and decommissioned reactors. It is a straightforward safety and security measure, not a deregulation, subsidy, or carve-out.
What the text implies
- Decommissioned reactors may see faster fuel removal, potentially accelerating site remediation and reducing long-term stewardship costs for utilities and communities.
- The bill does not create new DOE capacity or funding; it reorders the queue. Acceleration for high-priority sites may delay acceptance at lower-priority reactors, shifting risk geographically rather than eliminating it.
- National security criterion (subsection D) gives DOE discretion in consultation with Defense and Homeland Security, potentially classifying some sites as security-sensitive without public disclosure of the reasoning.
- Population-density criterion may favor urban reactors over rural ones, creating a geographic bias in removal timelines that could disadvantage rural communities with smaller populations but comparable storage risks.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens in densely populated areas, high-seismic-risk zones, and national-security-sensitive locations gain faster removal of spent fuel from their communities, reducing long-term storage risk and accident exposure. The bill prioritizes public safety and security over a first-come, first-served model that could leave dangerous materials in vulnerable locations indefinitely.
Named in the bill
Department of Energy, Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, United States Geological Survey, Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977, civilian nuclear power reactors
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 4 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Feb 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 5, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $560,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 35 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Mike Levin, the sponsor, reported $429,156 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Nuclear Energy Institute, Inc — $560,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,677 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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