The House of Representatives on Wednesday took the final step needed for floor debate today of legislation intended to push forward the long-delayed construction of a radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
In a nearly party-line vote of 224-184-1, with Republican lawmakers almost uniformly in support and all but three voting Democrats in opposition, the lower chamber approved a resolution authorizing consideration of Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2018.
The resolution, from Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), allows for two hours of general debate on the legislation, followed by consideration of amendment to the bill.
H.R. 3053 features a number of measures intended to strengthen the federal government’s ability to establish Yucca Mountain as a disposal site for spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste, as Congress directed in 1987. That includes more quickly shifting the federal land in Nye County from the Interior Department to the Department of Energy and specifying that the 147,000-acre plot would be used nearly fully for nuclear waste disposal.
Only three of 17 proposed amendments to the Shimkus bill made it out of the House Rules Committee on Tuesday: a proposal from Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) to fully replace the measure with language establishing a consent-based approach to building a nuclear waste repository; a measure from Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) directing DOE to release a summary of its yearly Nuclear Waste Fund financial statement audit; and an amendment from Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) mandating a report on federal resources to aid jurisdictions in dealing with the economic effects of used fuel storage and shuttered nuclear power plants, along with establishing economic adjustment plans as the facilities go into decommissioning.
Democrats particularly objected to rejection of an amendment from Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) that would have required the White House Office of Management and Budget to evaluate the economic benefits of alternative uses of Yucca Mountain before the government licenses, plans, develops, or builds the repository.
“We can still create jobs without having to take on monumental health and safety risks that come with transporting over 100,000 metric tons of hazardous and lethal nuclear waste,” Rosen said, citing options such as a command facility for drones, scientific research, an electronic data center, and renewable energy generation.
