Members of the House Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy, led by Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.), accused the NRC and NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane of stalling in their attempts to re-initiate the license review process for the Yucca Mountain application in a hearing yesterday on the progress of the Yucca Mountain license review. Shimkus said, “Electricity consumers and taxpayers have waited 30 years and paid $15 billion to find out whether our independent nuclear safety regulator concluded that Yucca Mountain would be safe or not, releasing the SER is the next step in the NRC’s process, the NRC has the money to do it, a federal court has ruled that the NRC must proceed, and the NRC says ‘hold on, let’s ask the parties what they think.’ This does not seem like the posture of an agency intent on complying with a writ of mandamus.”
The line of questioning from the congressmen turned combative at points as they expressed frustration with the lack of a timetable for the release of the Safety Evaluation Report (SER) and a lack of estimated cost to complete the review bubbling over. At different points throughout the hearing, Shimkus pointed out that “the NRC failed to comply with the law” and that “the NRC broke the law” by shuttering the review process. The majority of the congressmen agreed that the release of the SER should be the first step taken by the NRC. Energy and Commerce Committeee Chairman Fred Upton (R- Mich.) stated, “The NRC’s completion of the SER is the necessary and long-overdue next step.”
Macfarlane maintained the principle of her prepared statements throughout the hearing that she did not have a time table or budget yet, but that the NRC was moving quickly to obtain that information. She answered multiple times about what actions the NRC has taken by saying, “We have taken action already. The commission is operating expeditiously on this matter. We issued an order that requested information. We have asked our staff to provide us with budget information that we have to understand the lay of the land.” The NRC issued an Order two weeks ago requesting information on how best to spend the $11 million dollars they have to restart the Yucca Mountain licensing review. Parties have until Sept. 30 to provide input.
