U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Monday offered an optimistic outlook on the future of the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
“Whether it’s been in the courts or Congress, we are winning the battle on Yucca, but we’re not there yet,” Fleischmann said in a prerecorded video message to attendees of the 2018 Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix, Ariz.
The lawmaker, whose congressional district includes the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation, emphasized the importance of finding a permanent home for the growing domestic stockpile of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors.
His optimism derives from the strong bipartisan support shown for legislation from Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) that is intended to strengthen the federal government’s ability to build the repository, a spokeswoman for Fleischmann said. The House Energy and Commerce Committee last June voted 49-4 in favor of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, which is now awaiting a floor vote.
It has been more than three decades since Congress designated the Nye County, Nev., site as intended location for permanent disposal of that waste However, it has not yet been licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and is being fought tooth-and-nail by the state of Nevada.
The Trump administration has sought funding for the current budget year and the upcoming fiscal 2019 for DOE and the NRC to resume licensing proceedings halted by the Obama administration. While the House has supported that funding, the Senate has not – Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) last week told Energy Secretary Rick Perry the upper chamber would continue to reject any budget requests for Yucca Mountain.
Fleischmann noted that even if Yucca Mountain is built, some waste would still need storage elsewhere. The repository’s current legal capacity is 70,000 metric tons, less than just the amount of spent fuel still held on-site at nuclear plants around the country. Shimkus’s bill, though, would raise the legal capacity to 110,000 metric tons.
