The House Appropriations Committee appears ready to support the Department of Energy’s request for $27.5 million to help stand up a program for temporary storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants.
The $49.6 billion energy and water appropriations legislation released Monday would provide that amount to cover DOE costs “necessary for nuclear waste disposal activities to carry out the purposes of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 … including interim storage activities.” Of the total, $7.5 million would come from the Nuclear Waste Fund, the federal account intended to pay for disposal of the nation’s radioactive waste.
That appears to be the only language in the 100-page bill that addresses federal nuclear waste disposal operations.
In its February budget request for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the Energy Department said it would use the money for an Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program. The funding is intended to support a “robust” program for waste storage, along with research and development of storage, transportation, and disposal technologies, “with a focus on systems deployable where there is a willingness to host,” the White House said in February.
In the absence of a permanent repository, interim storage is viewed as an option for the federal government to meet its obligation under the 1982 law to remove high-level waste from defense nuclear operations and spent nuclear fuel from their places of generation. The legal deadline to begin disposal was Jan. 31, 1998.
The Trump administration request represents a turnaround from its efforts in three prior budget proposals to resume licensing of the planned repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. Congress rejected all three attempts.
The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its bill starting at 3 p.m. today.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has not released its version of the energy and water legislation. The upper chamber is on a two-week recess.
