It is ultimately up to Congress to decide whether it wants the federal government to move ahead with establishing a repository for nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Tuesday.
During an oversight hearing before the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, Brouillette said the Trump administration is focused on a solution for management of tens of thousands of tons of spent reactor fuel now stranded at nuclear power plants around the country.
“But it’s also very clear that Congress has chosen not to fund any activity related to what was designated as the final repository in Nevada many years ago,” he said in response to a question from Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.). “And as a result of that we are prohibited from moving forward with that particular repository, and we won’t move forward with that repository until Congress decides it may want to do that.”
The Energy Department’s 2008 license application for Yucca Mountain to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been frozen for a decade, after the Obama administration defunded the proceeding. In its first thee budget proposals, for fiscal years 2018 to 2020, the Trump administration requested congressional appropriations to resume licensing. Congress rejected each request.
For the upcoming 2021 budget year, DOE instead requested $27.5 million for an Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program. That program would provide early research and development and related activities for relocating used fuel into centralized, temporary facilities until a permanent repository is ready.
“We’ve just begun that process,” Brouillette said. “It will be open, it will be inclusive. I want to work not only with the policymakers here in Congress, but also with the governors and the local officials as well, so that together we might find an appropriate solution.”
The House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved its energy and water bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, which would provide the $27.5 million DOE requested for the interim storage effort. The Senate has yet to release any appropriations legislation.
