The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff have both formally affirmed their intention to participate in any renewed adjudication of DOE’s license application for the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The parties’ easily anticipated confirmations were included in responses submitted in recent weeks to an Oct. 27 request for information from Margie Janney, acting administrator for the NRC’s Licensing Support Network (LSN), the retired electronic system for access to evidentiary documents in the Yucca Mountain license review process.
The LSN was shut down itself in 2011, the year after the Obama administration DOE suspended its Yucca Mountain licensing effort. Roughly 3.7 million documents, though, are stored in the LSN Library within the NRC’s ADAMS online document database.
Janney’s 11-question information request focuses on potential reconstitution of the Licensing Support Network, but begins with this question: “If the Yucca Mountain adjudication should be re-instituted, do you plan to participate?”
The Energy Department simply checked the “yes” box on its form submitted on Nov. 27. NRC staff also answered in the affirmative on Dec. 1, but added that its participation would be based on appropriation of funds and direction from the commission.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the lobbying arm for the nuclear industry, said separately on Nov. 21 it would participate in a resumed licensing adjudication.
All the documents were posted to the NRC website on Tuesday.
The Trump administration has sought to resume Yucca licensing, requesting $120 million for DOE and $30 million for the NRC for this work in the current fiscal 2018, which began on Oct. 1. The House supported Yucca funding in its energy appropriations bill, while Senate appropriators approved no money for the project in corresponding legislation that has yet to go before the full chamber for a vote. Congress has yet to pass a budget for the full year, relying instead on short-term continuing resolutions that freeze spending at fiscal 2017 levels. That includes no money for Yucca Mountain.
