Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
3/13/2015
The Department of Energy denied rumors this week that there it had ever received a proposal from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) about a possible use of the Yucca Mountain site for research, sending a letter March 7 from DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary John Kotek to House lawmakers. DOE previously did not comment when the rumors emerged two weeks ago. Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent DOE a letter two weeks ago looking for answers regarding rumors that DTRA planned to conduct studies at Yucca Mountain. “I understand that officials from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) have discussed the subject of your letter with your staff on the Energy and Commerce Committee,” Kotek said in the letter. “DTRA is better suited to discuss the plans of that agency, but I can tell you that DOE has not received a proposal from DTRA to use the Yucca Mountain site for any purpose. In addition, we have been informed that DTRA does not intend to make such a proposal.”
Although DTRA confirmed that officials recently visited the site when the rumors first emerged, DTRA denied claims that it was in talks with DOE to use the underground tunnels at the site for testing that could render Yucca Mountain unusable as a repository. “The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has never used the Yucca Mountain site for any testing activity and we have no plans to do so in the future,” DTRA spokesman Dan Gaffney said at the time. Gaffney later added, “DTRA program managers periodically visit DoD and DOE sites to look at existing Underground Facilities and make assessments. This type of visit does not imply that DTRA is interested or is planning to conduct testing at the Yucca Mountain site.”
DOE Maintains Yucca Mountain ‘Unworkable’
DOE has maintained, despite Republican pressure, that Yucca Mountain remains “unworkable” for spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste storage due to the lack of consent for the repository in Nevada. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz has emphasized that the Department’s strategy has not changed in the new Congress, which includes Republican control in both the House and Senate. DOE still intends on moving forward with a pilot interim storage facility as the preferred strategy to satisfy the nation’s spent fuel disposal needs, but due to language in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Department cannot consider other sites beyond Yucca Mountain without congressional approval. In its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, DOE asked for a reform that would enable it to move forward with its waste management strategy, but it remains to be seen whether that language will make it into legislation.
