The bill would remove the liability because the government would take responsibility for the waste and give the utilities the means to store waste on-site. On-site storage is said to be safe for at least 100 years, according to Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen, so this will buy the country time to find a real nuclear waste solution.

"In fact, it is clear that Yucca Mountain will never open," according to Reid's summary of the bill. "Taking title to spent nuclear fuel fulfills the federal government's obligation and commitment to retake control over nuclear materials."

If signed into law, commercial power plants would have six years to move nuclear waste from storage pools to dry cask storage or six years after the waste is produced, according to the bill.

In a proposed nuclear waste amendment to the energy bill earlier this year, Hatch and Bennett included a provision to study feasibility of the department "taking possession" of nuclear waste on-site at nuclear reactors but postponed the amendment, and the bill was passed without it.

"This bill is a way to take the pressure off the need for Skull Valley," Hatch said in a statement. "My support for it does not change my support for Yucca Mountain, although it is clear that I am pursuing other reasonable or acceptable approaches to solving the disposal problem. Rather, it shows that I stand with the senators from Nevada and Utah in signaling that the government must develop a nuclear waste disposal policy, the sooner the better."

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said the bill is a good idea and a good first step, but more needs to be done.

"We need to adopt a national policy of reprocessing this material, or the political tug-of-war over where this stuff should be stored will not end," Cannon said. "And, as long as that debate continues, Utah and other Western states will remain at risk of becoming dumping grounds."

Cannon said he plans to introduce a bill next year that would have the government take responsibility for the waste on-site but also establish a reprocessing plan.

"We can then stop haggling over where to best let it pile up. Only then will we be safe from the political temptation to make the west desert a solution to storage problems," he said.

Yucca Mountain supporters oppose the bill filed Wednesday, saying it does nothing to solve the waste disposal problem.