FADS Act

Foreign Americium Disposal and Storage Act or the FADS Act

This bill authorizes the collection, storage, and safe disposal of certain foreign-origin, proliferation-attractive fissile materials or radiological materials (or similar foreign-origin materials) at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which is the United States' only repository for the disposal of transuranic nuclear waste.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4873 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4873

  To clarify the authority of the Department of Energy to dispose of 
 certain foreign-origin fissile or radiological materials at the Waste 
                         Isolation Pilot Plant.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 30, 2021

 Mr. Cawthorn (for himself, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Steube, 
  Ms. Salazar, and Mr. Buck) introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To clarify the authority of the Department of Energy to dispose of 
 certain foreign-origin fissile or radiological materials at the Waste 
                         Isolation Pilot Plant.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Foreign Americium Disposal and 
Storage Act'' or the ``FADS Act''.

SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION OF AUTHORITY TO DISPOSE OF CERTAIN FISSILE OR 
              RADIOLOGICAL MATERIALS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) While United States-origin americium-241 (Am-241) 
        sealed sources recovered by the National Nuclear Security 
        Administration of the Department of Energy may be disposed of 
        at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), Russian-origin Am-
        241 sources may not be.
            (2) Section 2(19) of the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act of 1991 
        identifies WIPP as the location for the disposal of 
        ``radioactive waste materials generated by atomic energy 
        defense activities''.
            (3) The Am-241 sources of concern that may not currently be 
        eligible for disposal at WIPP have the same isotopic properties 
        and are often colocated with sources that are eligible for 
        disposal at WIPP.
            (4) Russian-origin sealed sources, once confirmed to meet 
        the WIPP Waste Acceptance Criteria, should be eligible for 
        disposal at WIPP.
            (5) The Carlsbad Field Office of the Department estimates 
        the volume to be disposed is equivalent to 1 to 2 shipments a 
        year and will have a negligible impact on WIPP operations.
            (6) The Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
        (NRC), and the international community have identified Am-241 
        as a radioisotope that should be protected due to the 
        possibility of its use in a radiological dispersal device.
            (7) As part of its defense nuclear nonproliferation 
        mission, the National Nuclear Security Administration recovers 
        thousands of disused sealed sources from domestic and 
        international facilities.
            (8) Codifying a disposition pathway for these Am-241 
        sources will allow the National Nuclear Security Administration 
        to accelerate their removal and reduce the availability of 
        material that could be used in a dirty bomb.
    (b) Clarification.--Section 3132(c)(1) of the Ronald W. Reagan 
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (50 U.S.C. 
2569(c)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
                    ``(N)(i) The collection, storage, and safe disposal 
                of the materials described in clause (ii) as waste 
                materials generated by atomic energy defense activities 
                for the purpose of disposal of such materials at WIPP 
                (as defined in section 2(19) of the Waste Isolation 
                Pilot Plant Land Withdrawal Act (Public Law 102-579; 
                106 Stat. 4777)).
                    ``(ii) The materials described in this clause are 
                proliferation-attractive fissile materials or 
                radiological materials that--
                            ``(I) contain transuranic elements of 
                        foreign-origin; and
                            ``(II) but for subclause (I), are similar 
                        to proliferation-attractive fissile materials 
                        or radiological materials covered by this 
                        section.''.
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