House Energy Chair: More Work Needed On Nuclear Waste Bill

By Jeremy Dillon

Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
7/31/2015

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) on Tuesday remained noncommittal regarding a time frame for moving forward a legislative solution to address nuclear waste storage. Speaking at the National Journal’s “Conversation with the Chair” series in Washington, D.C., Upton said he remained “hopeful” that some legislation addressing the problem either by advancing Yucca Mountain or interim storage could emerge, but he indicated more work needs to be done before anything moves forward. “I’m hoping that we get might be able to structure some legislation that would allow Yucca to proceed —we still have a lot to do—as well as develop on a similar track a site or multiple sites for interim storage,” Upton said. “It’s early in the discussion stage, but it’s something I would like to see happen at some point.” He later added, “I think ultimately we will come to a conclusion. Whether we can do it in the next year or so, I don’t know. But it’s worth trying.”

The committee’s focus for the next couple months will most likely remain on the energy bill package meant to update the nation’s energy policy and infrastructure, Upton said, and he made clear that a nuclear waste bill would not be ready in time to warrant tacking the issue onto the package. “On the issue of nuclear waste, which is related for sure, we are not going to be ready to move something like that in our energy bill that is moving to markup next month,” Upton said.

House lawmakers have led the push to restart the shuttered Yucca Mountain project. The House Energy and Water Appropriations bill for fiscal 2016, which passed last month, included $175 million reserved for Yucca Mountain, of which $150 million would go to the Department of Energy and $25 million to the NRC.

On the Senate side, Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has voiced his support for Yucca Mountain, and has said that in conjunction with interim storage, funding for the project could make the Senate’s final appropriations legislation for the next fiscal year. However, no funding for Yucca Mountain was included in the Senate version of the bill, which still needs a floor vote. Alexander has also co-sponsored, along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Maria Cantwell (D- Wash.), and Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), a bill that includes: language that would create a new federal waste management organization to take over spent nuclear fuel disposal from the Department of Energy, allow the construction of a consent-based pilot interim storage facility, and establish a new working capital fund in the U.S. Treasury where fees collected from the utilities would be deposited and which would not depend on the approval of congressional appropriators.

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July 28, 2015

House Energy Chair: More Work Needs To Be Done On Nuclear Waste Bill

By ExchangeMonitor

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (R-Mich.) on Tuesday remained noncommittal regarding a time frame for moving forward a legislative solution to address nuclear waste storage. Speaking at the National Journal’s “Conversation with the Chair” series in Washington, D.C., Upton said he remained “hopeful” that some legislation addressing the problem either by advancing Yucca Mountain or interim storage could emerge, but he indicated more work needs to be done before anything moves forward. “I’m hoping that we get might be able to structure some legislation that would allow Yucca to proceed —we still have a lot to do—as well as develop on a similar track a site or multiple sites for interim storage,” Upton said. “It’s early in the discussion stage, but it’s something I would like to see happen at some point.” He later added, “I think ultimately we will come to a conclusion. Whether we can do it in the next year or so, I don’t know. But it’s worth trying.”

House leaders, led by Upton and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), earlier this year said their aim was for a nuclear waste bill by the end of summer, but no legislation has developed. Shimkus pushed for a bill focused on incentivizing the state of Nevada into negotiations on accepting completion and operation of the Yucca Mountain depot through infrastructure improvements and economic benefits. Upton, meanwhile, was rumored to be sponsoring a draft bill that would tie any progress on interim storage to the completion of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Yucca Mountain license review. The committee’s focus for the next couple months will most likely remain on the energy bill package meant to update the nation’s energy policy and infrastructure, Upton said, and he made clear yesterday that a nuclear waste bill would not be ready in time to warrant tacking the issue onto the package.

Comments are closed.