The Department of Energy this week offered details on how it would divide and use $116 million proposed for nuclear waste storage and disposal operations in fiscal 2020.
In rolling out its latest budget plan in March, the agency said only the money would support regulatory activities for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada and development of a “robust” program for interim storage until final disposal is ready.
The department on Tuesday posted a 493-page budget justification providing a far more granular look at the spending plan for its Office of Nuclear Energy and related programs, including Yucca Mountain and Interim Storage.
“This Budget Request provides for legal support to represent the Department in the [Yucca] licensing process, as well as to respond to litigation and other legal matters,” the document says. “It provides for technical and scientific support necessary to support an affirmative case for the license and to respond to any challenges to the license application.”
Of the $116 million top line, $85.6 million would be directed to licensing and project support, balance of plant infrastructure, program management and integration, and litigation costs to resume the licensing proceeding for disposal of spent nuclear power reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste under Yucca Mountain.
The department submitted its license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008 during the George W. Bush administration. However, the Obama administration defunded the proceeding at both agencies two years later. The Trump administration’s 2020 budget plan represents its third effort to provide funding to resume the program; Congress zeroed out requests for fiscal 2018 and 2019.
If the administration gets a better outcome from Capitol Hill for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, specific DOE activities for licensing would include: general participation in the proceeding; technical, scientific, and legal support for court challenges to the license; and preparing DOE witnesses for testimony before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission board that would hear the license adjudication.
The Nevada state government, which has filed more than 200 contentions with the NRC against the federal application, estimates that the adjudication could last up to five years.
Under balance of plant infrastructure, operations in fiscal 2020 would cover maintaining safety at the Yucca Mountain property. Project support would encompass a long list of activities, including functions such as project controls, systems engineering, information management, and procurement, the justification says.
For litigation, DOE funding in fiscal 2020 would support management of lawsuits connected to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which required the department to by Jan. 31, 1998, to begin accepting waste for disposal. In particular, according to the justification, this would cover cases filed by nuclear utilities for DOE’s breach of Standard Contracts for spent fuel removal from 74 commercial reactor sites. The federal government has already paid more than $8 billion in such cases, and its liability is estimated to exceed $30 billion.
Even with regulatory approval, it would be years or decades before the Yucca Mountain repository would be ready to accept radioactive waste. Interim storage is seen as an option for DOE to meet its legal mandate to begin removing the material from its site of generation. Two separate corporate teams are seeking NRC licenses to build and operate consolidated interim storage facilities in New Mexico and Texas.
That DOE interim storage program would get just over $6.5 million in the next budget, paying for work including development of plans for consolidated interim storage and transportation of the waste; engagement with regional, state, and tribal transportation regulators to ready for shipment of the used fuel and high-level waste; and limited support for “logistical requirements and analytical capabilities.”
The remaining $23 million would pay for program direction: “the federal staffing resources and associated costs required to support the overall direction and execution” of both the Yucca Mountain and interim storage programs. Staff would work from Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, including personnel from DOE’s Office of the General Counsel and Energy Information Administration.
