The Republican-led House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee has included in its fiscal 2017 spending bill language that denies the Department of Energy any funding for its consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage, while calling for the resumption of licensing a national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according to the bill report released Monday.
The full committee is scheduled to consider the bill at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. The House spending bill, released last week, calls for $150 million to carry out the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, which designated Yucca Mountain as the only site for a national repository, and $20 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to complete licensing procedures for the facility. Funding would come from the $34 billion Nuclear Waste Fund.
The Obama administration canceled the Yucca Mountain project in favor of a “phased, adaptive” process for siting spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in welcoming areas. DOE earlier this year requested $76.3 million for its Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) program, which would lay the foundation for the department’s consent-based siting effort. That plan envisions operation of a pilot storage facility by 2021; one or more larger, interim facilities by 2025; and at least one permanent geologic repository by 2048. The IWMS dictates transportation, storage, and disposal of American spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
“Yucca remains the law of the land yet the Department has requested no funding for its development,” states the House bill report. “Instead, the Department has again proposed large increases for new activities that ignore the significant investments made to ensure that the plans for Yucca enable safe and reliable storage for high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel. The Committee rejects this approach and provides no funds for integrated waste management system activities.”
Conversely, the Senate version of the bill, also released last week, recommended $61 million for integrated waste management, while denying any new funds for Yucca Mountain activities.
The House bill report calls on DOE to respond to NRC review during the license process, and “to otherwise fully support the Yucca Mountain licensing process.” It also includes language that prevents NRC Chairman Stephen Burns from terminating any program, project, or activity without the approval of a majority of NRC commissioners.
“The federal government has a legal obligation to take responsibility for civilian spent nuclear fuel and these actions to delay progress toward Yucca Mountain increase the financial penalties taxpayers will ultimately bear,” the bill report reads.
