1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to the environment; reactivating and 
  1.3             reorganizing the nuclear waste council; modifying 
  1.4             provisions relating to dry cask storage of nuclear 
  1.5             waste; appropriating money; amending Minnesota 
  1.6             Statutes 1996, sections 116C.711, subdivisions 1 and 
  1.7             2; 116C.712, subdivisions 1, 2, and 5; and 116C.771; 
  1.8             repealing Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.80. 
  1.9   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.10     Section 1.  [TITLE.] 
  1.11     This act shall be known as "The Minnesota Nuclear 
  1.12  Responsibility Act of 1997."  
  1.13     Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.711, 
  1.14  subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
  1.15     Subdivision 1.  [ESTABLISHMENT.] The governor's Minnesota 
  1.16  nuclear waste council is established. 
  1.17     Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.711, 
  1.18  subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
  1.19     Subd. 2.  [MEMBERSHIP.] The council shall have at least 
  1.20  nine 23 members, consisting of: 
  1.21     (1) the commissioners of health, transportation, public 
  1.22  service, and natural resources, and the commissioner of the 
  1.23  pollution control agency; 
  1.24     (2) four citizen members appointed by the governor of the 
  1.25  house of representatives appointed by the speaker of the house, 
  1.26  one of whom must be from the minority caucus; 
  1.27     (3) the director of the Minnesota geological survey four 
  2.1   members of the senate to be appointed by the senate subcommittee 
  2.2   on committees, one of whom must be from the minority caucus; 
  2.3      (4) one additional citizen from each potentially impacted 
  2.4   area may be appointed by the governor if potentially impacted 
  2.5   areas are designated in Minnesota six citizen members to be 
  2.6   appointed by the environmental quality board, one of whom must 
  2.7   be a citizen of Goodhue county; and 
  2.8      (5) one Indian who is an four enrolled member members of 
  2.9   a federally recognized Minnesota Indian tribe or band may be 
  2.10  tribes or bands with ceded territories in Minnesota appointed by 
  2.11  the governor if potentially impacted areas are designated in 
  2.12  Minnesota and if those areas include Indian country as defined 
  2.13  in United States Code, title 18, section 11.54. 
  2.14     At least two members of the council must have expertise in 
  2.15  the earth sciences the Minnesota Indian affairs council. 
  2.16     The members of the council appointed under clauses (1) to 
  2.17  (5) may also appoint two Minnesota members of the United States 
  2.18  House of Representatives, or their designees, and two Minnesota 
  2.19  members of the United States Senate, or their designees, to be 
  2.20  ex officio nonvoting members of the council.  
  2.21     Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.712, 
  2.22  subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
  2.23     Subdivision 1.  [DUTY.] (a) The council's general duty is 
  2.24  to monitor protect the public good by monitoring the federal 
  2.25  high-level radioactive waste disposal program under the Nuclear 
  2.26  Waste Policy Act, Public Law Number 97-425, deliberating on the 
  2.27  appropriate state regulation of the production and storage of 
  2.28  high-level radioactive waste, and advise advising the governor 
  2.29  and the legislature on all policy issues relating to the federal 
  2.30  storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste disposal 
  2.31  program. 
  2.32     (b) In addition to its general duties, the council shall: 
  2.33     (1) formulate and recommend amendments to the Radioactive 
  2.34  Waste Management Act, sections 116C.705 to 116C.74.  In 
  2.35  preparing these recommendations, the council should be guided by 
  2.36  the hierarchy of preferred electric generation sources 
  3.1   established in section 216C.051, subdivision 7, and take into 
  3.2   account: 
  3.3      (i) developments in technology; 
  3.4      (ii) the transitions that are occurring in the structure of 
  3.5   the electric industry; 
  3.6      (iii) federal, state, and private high-level radioactive 
  3.7   waste storage initiatives; 
  3.8      (iv) federal court decisions resolving the issue of 
  3.9   responsibility for the storage of commercial high-level 
  3.10  radioactive waste; and 
  3.11     (v) other relevant factors that have occurred since the act 
  3.12  was last amended; 
  3.13     (2) establish criteria for a site characterization study of 
  3.14  the independent spent fuel storage installation at Prairie 
  3.15  Island, and recommend that such a study be ordered by the 
  3.16  legislature; 
  3.17     (3) recommend a process by which the state may develop and 
  3.18  adopt technically sound transportation and siting criteria for 
  3.19  the storage of high-level radioactive waste produced in 
  3.20  Minnesota.  This process shall include adequate public and 
  3.21  scientific scrutiny to ensure that high-level radioactive waste 
  3.22  is adequately isolated from human populations and water 
  3.23  resources; 
  3.24     (4) recommend that the siting criteria for the storage of 
  3.25  high-level radioactive waste in Minnesota include in-kind 
  3.26  compensation for impacted area residents; and 
  3.27     (5) to offset the economic risk that the federal financial 
  3.28  assurance fund for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste 
  3.29  will be insufficient and that the financial burden for long-term 
  3.30  storage and disposal of this waste will fall on Minnesota 
  3.31  taxpayers and ratepayers, recommend the establishment of a state 
  3.32  high-level radioactive waste disposal financial assurance trust 
  3.33  fund into which any entity that operates a nuclear-powered 
  3.34  electric generating plant within this state must pay; and 
  3.35     (6) develop and recommend criteria for a worker transition 
  3.36  plan to respond to a shut-down of longer than six months at a 
  4.1   nuclear-powered electric generating plant operating in this 
  4.2   state, and recommend that the legislature require each entity 
  4.3   operating such a plant to submit a plan that complies with those 
  4.4   criteria to the department of economic security. 
  4.5      (c) The council shall present its recommendations under 
  4.6   paragraph (b) to the legislature.  In formulating its 
  4.7   recommendations, the council may not consider any changes to 
  4.8   Laws 1994, chapter 641, without recommending the exhaustion of 
  4.9   all applicable administrative procedures, including the 
  4.10  certificate of need process under section 216B.243. 
  4.11     Sec. 5.  Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.712, 
  4.12  subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
  4.13     Subd. 2.  [EXPIRATION DATE.] The council terminates when 
  4.14  the department of energy eliminates Minnesota from further 
  4.15  siting consideration for disposal of high-level radioactive 
  4.16  waste on June 30, 2002, but may be reauthorized. 
  4.17     Sec. 6.  Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.712, 
  4.18  subdivision 5, is amended to read: 
  4.19     Subd. 5.  [ASSESSMENT.] (a) A person, firm, corporation, or 
  4.20  association in the business of owning or operating a nuclear 
  4.21  fission electrical generating plant in this state shall pay an 
  4.22  assessment to cover the cost of: 
  4.23     (1) monitoring the federal high-level radioactive waste 
  4.24  program under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, United States Code, 
  4.25  title 42, sections 10101 to 10226; 
  4.26     (2) advising the governor and the legislature on policy 
  4.27  issues relating to the federal, state, and private high-level 
  4.28  radioactive waste storage and disposal program programs; 
  4.29     (3) surveying existing literature and activity relating to 
  4.30  radioactive waste management, including storage, transportation, 
  4.31  and disposal, in the state; 
  4.32     (4) an advisory task force on low-level radioactive waste 
  4.33  deregulation, created by a law enacted in 1990 until July 1, 
  4.34  1996; and 
  4.35     (5) other general studies necessary to carry out the 
  4.36  purposes of this subdivision.  
  5.1      The assessment must not be more than the appropriation to 
  5.2   the office of strategic and long-range planning for these 
  5.3   purposes.  
  5.4      (b) The office shall bill the owner or operator of the 
  5.5   plant for the assessment at least 30 days before the start of 
  5.6   each quarter.  The assessment for the second quarter of each 
  5.7   fiscal year must be adjusted to compensate for the amount by 
  5.8   which actual expenditures by the office for the preceding year 
  5.9   were more or less than the estimated expenditures previously 
  5.10  assessed.  The billing may be made as an addition to the 
  5.11  assessments made under section 116C.69.  The owner or operator 
  5.12  of the plant must pay the assessment within 30 days after 
  5.13  receipt of the bill.  The assessment must be deposited in the 
  5.14  state treasury and credited to the special revenue fund. 
  5.15     (c) The authority for this assessment terminates when the 
  5.16  department of energy eliminates Minnesota from further siting 
  5.17  consideration for high-level radioactive waste by starting 
  5.18  construction of a high-level radioactive waste disposal site in 
  5.19  another state council terminates.  The assessment required for 
  5.20  any quarter must be reduced by the amount of federal grant money 
  5.21  received by the office of strategic and long-range planning for 
  5.22  the purposes listed in this section.  
  5.23     (d) The director of the office of strategic and long-range 
  5.24  planning must report annually by July 1 to the environment and 
  5.25  natural resources committees of the senate and house of 
  5.26  representatives, the finance division of the senate committee on 
  5.27  environment and natural resources, and the house of 
  5.28  representatives committee on environment and natural resources 
  5.29  finance on activities assessed under paragraph (a). 
  5.30     Sec. 7.  Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.771, is 
  5.31  amended to read: 
  5.32     116C.771 [ADDITIONAL CASK LIMITATIONS.] 
  5.33     (a) Five casks may be filled and used at Prairie Island on 
  5.34  May 11, 1994.  
  5.35     (b) An additional four casks may be filled and used at 
  5.36  Prairie Island if the environmental quality board determines 
  6.1   that, by December 31, 1996, the public utility operating the 
  6.2   Prairie Island plant has filed a license application with the 
  6.3   United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a spent nuclear 
  6.4   fuel storage facility off of Prairie Island in Goodhue county, 
  6.5   is continuing to make a good faith effort to implement the site, 
  6.6   and has constructed, contracted for construction and operation, 
  6.7   or purchased installed capacity of 100 megawatts of wind power 
  6.8   in addition to wind power under construction or contract on May 
  6.9   11, 1994. 
  6.10     (c)(1) An additional eight casks may be filled and placed 
  6.11  at Prairie Island only if the legislature has not revoked the 
  6.12  authorization under clause (2) or: 
  6.13     (1) the public utility demonstrates to the environmental 
  6.14  quality board that these casks, as well as previous casks filled 
  6.15  and stored at Prairie Island, can be safely unloaded and their 
  6.16  contents safely transported; and 
  6.17     (2) the public utility has satisfied the wind power and 
  6.18  biomass mandate requirements in sections 216B.2423, subdivision 
  6.19  1, clause (1), and 216B.2424, clause (1), and the alternative 
  6.20  site in Goodhue county is operational or under construction.  
  6.21  (2) If the site is not under construction or operational or the 
  6.22  wind mandates are not satisfied, the legislature may revoke the 
  6.23  authorization for the additional eight casks by a law enacted 
  6.24  prior to June 1, 1999. 
  6.25     (d) Except as provided under paragraph (e), dry cask 
  6.26  storage capacity for high-level nuclear waste within the state 
  6.27  may not be increased beyond the casks authorized by section 
  6.28  116C.77 or their equivalent storage capacity. 
  6.29     (e) This section does not prohibit a public utility from 
  6.30  applying for or the public utilities commission from granting a 
  6.31  certificate of need for retrievable and transportable dry cask 
  6.32  storage to accommodate the decommissioning of a nuclear power 
  6.33  plant within this state. 
  6.34     Sec. 8.  [CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION.] 
  6.35     The state releases the public utility operating the Prairie 
  6.36  Island nuclear plant from its contractual obligations under 
  7.1   Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 116C.773, to the extent the 
  7.2   contract conflicts with this act. 
  7.3      Sec. 9.  [REPEALER.] 
  7.4      Minnesota Statutes 1996, section 116C.80, is repealed. 
  7.5      Sec. 10.  [APPROPRIATION.] 
  7.6      $....... is appropriated from the special revenue fund 
  7.7   established in Minnesota Statutes, section 116C.69 to the 
  7.8   director of the office of strategic and long-range planning for 
  7.9   the purposes described in Minnesota Statutes, section 116C.712. 
  7.10     Sec. 11.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
  7.11     Sections 1 to 9 are effective the day following final 
  7.12  enactment.