The Trump administration this week publicly played down any appearance that recent comments from a senior Department of Energy official indicate continuing commitment to building a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes “and The Department of Energy fully support finding an alternative to Yucca Mountain for the storage of nuclear waste,” DOE spokeswoman Kelly Love said by email Wednesday. “Respecting the will of the people of Nevada, the President’s budget calls for finding innovative alternatives for the safe and efficient disposal of our nation’s nuclear waste.”
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump tweeted that he had heard Nevada’s opposition to housing the disposal facility and that his administration plans “innovative approaches” to the longstanding dilemma over where to send tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste. The White House followed that on Feb. 10 with a new budget plan that would provide upward of $27.5 million at DOE for interim storage of that waste but nothing to resume licensing the geologic repository in Nevada. That reversed unsuccessful efforts in three prior budget cycles to persuade Congress to approve appropriations for licensing.
Two days after the budget rollout, before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, Menezes indicated the administration had not given up on Yucca Mountain.
“What we’re trying to do is put together a process that will give us a path toward permanent storage at Yucca,” he said in response to a question from Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.).
The former Berkshire Hathaway executive and House attorney is waiting on a formal nomination to become deputy energy secretary, the No. 2 position at the agency. The White House announced the pending nomination on Feb. 13, but it had not been filed at deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor.
Menezes’ comments got the White House’s attention, and not in a good way, Axios reported Tuesday. One source described Menezes’ statement at the hearing as “shocking” given Trump’s position now on Yucca Mountain.
There was then quick backtracking.
“I have spoken to the White House and the Administration will not be pursuing Yucca Mountain as a solution for nuclear waste, and there are no funds in the budget to do so,” Menezes said in a statement Wednesday. “I am fully supportive of the President’s decision and applaud him for taking action when so many others have failed to do so.”
Under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Energy Department was on the hook to by Jan. 31, 1998, begin disposal of what is now roughly 100,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste from defense nuclear operations and used fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. Congress amended the law in 1987 to direct that the radioactive materials be placed permanently in a geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Nevada’s state leaders and congressional delegation have fought the plan from the start, and none of the waste has been moved.
The George W. Bush administration DOE filed its license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008, but the Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later. President Barack Obama took a stab at a “consent-based” approach for new siting of separate repositories for defense and commercial waste. His term ended before that program got far, and Trump turned back to Yucca Mountain.
Annually for fiscal years 2018 to 2020, the Trump administration requested funding to resume licensing – including about $150 million at the Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory in the current 2020 budget year that began on Oct. 1. In making their case for funding, Menezes and other DOE leaders regularly noted that Yucca Mountain remains the law of the land.
That suggested a fourth attempt was in the offing for fiscal 2021, but Trump reversed course earlier this month – ahead of a rally in Las Vegas today, the state’s Democratic Party presidential caucuses on Saturday, and ultimately the November election. (Contenders for the Democratic Party’s nomination debated in Nevada on Wednesday, but did not discuss Yucca Mountain.)
The $35.4 billion spending plan for the Energy Department includes $27.5 million for an Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program, managed by the undersecretary of energy. That would cover a “robust” program for interim storage of radioactive waste, along with research and development of technologies for storage, transportation, and disposal, according to White House budget documents.
“I assume that part of the money will be used to continue ongoing and needed research supporting extended storage and transportation of used fuel,” Steve Nesbit, a nuclear industry consultant and former Duke Energy executive, said by email Tuesday. “With respect to interim storage, the administration’s plans are not clear.”
The administration also proposes in fiscal 2023 to restart fee collections from nuclear utilities for the federal Nuclear Waste Fund that is intended to pay for the disposal project. The Obama administration stopped collecting the fees in 2014, on order from a federal appeals court.
Interim storage is seen as a potential means for the Energy Department to meet its legal mandate to remove used fuel from nuclear power plants before a repository is ready. Two separate corporate teams have applied for 40-year licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate facilities to temporarily store spent power-plant fuel. Holtec International’s planned site in Lea County, N.M., would have a maximum capacity exceeding 100,000 metric tons of waste. Interim Storage Partners plans a smaller footprint in Andrews County, Texas, with storage of up to 40,000 metric tons. Both applicants hope to receive their licenses around mid-2021.
The Energy Department has not yet released additional details of what that $27.5 million will pay for. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette is scheduled to testify on the agency’s new budget next Thursday before the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee.
The White House budget mentions deployment of waste management technologies “where there is a willingness to host” – possibly hinting at some form of consent-based siting.
“The way one defines ‘host community’ makes a huge difference in this debate,” Jordan Haverly, spokesman for Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), a resolute supporter of Yucca Mountain who is not seeking re-election this year, tweeted on Friday. “An entire state is never going to consent to a permanent repository, but smaller units of government will.”
The waste issue popped up on Feb. 12 when McNerney went off-topic during a House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee on energy efficiency and storage. The California lawmaker asked Menezes to explain the details of the promised “innovative approaches for long-term storage.”
“The president recognized the importance of doing something with the waste we have stored across our country at the nuclear facilities,” Menezes responded. “He also recognizes that the law of the land is permanent repository Yucca Mountain. He is, as everybody who cares about this issue, frustrated in the fact that still we have not been able to get the resources or the authorization that we need to license Yucca.”
Menezes also mentioned “an interagency process” with states and other stakeholders to drive progress on waste disposal. Pressed further to describe the White House plan, he said it could draw from legislation on nuclear waste management filed by McNerney last year.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 is a new version of a bill headed by Shimkus in 2017 that passed out of the House on a 340-72 vote but never got a hearing in the Senate before the 115th Congress ended. The legislation contains measure to advance both Yucca Mountain and consolidated interim storage of used fuel until a final disposal facility is available. These include: boosting the maximum legal capacity of the repository from 70,000 metric tons to 110,000 metric tons; Transferring management of the Yucca Mountain property from the Interior Department to DOE; and authorizing DOE to site, build, and manage at least one “monitored retrievable storage facility,” and to contract for storage of agency-owned waste by a federally licensed commercial operation.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the bill to the full chamber in November. A companion measure in the Senate, from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), remains before the upper chamber’s Environment and Public Works Committee.
Speaking to RadWaste Monitor before Menezes issued his post-hearing statement, industry sources said there are elements of a program for interim storage that could be applied to Yucca Mountain or another repository project.
“Some of DOE’s ongoing work relates to used fuel transportation (e.g., the production of a prototype rail car for used fuel transportation),” Nesbit stated. “Such work will ultimately support used fuel transportation to a geologic repository, whether at Yucca Mountain, Nevada or at a location in another state.”
Along with transportation, the Energy Department will need to prepare security along transportation routes for either storage or disposal of the waste, another industry source said. That includes training first responders in applicable jurisdictions.
