Vocal proponents for establishing a permanent strategy for disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste, possibly at the always controversial Yucca Mountain site in Nevada, are preparing to ascend to leadership posts in Congress that have central roles in advancing the issue.
When Democrats take control of the House of Representatives next month, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) should become chairman of the chamber’s Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) appears likely to take the top spot on the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee.
Pallone, elected last month to his 16th term as Democrats won a majority in the House, is already ranking member at Energy and Commerce. He would succeed current Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who has been selected as Republicans’ next ranking member for the committee.
The committee has broad legislative authority over agencies including the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, encompassing reviewing their annual budget proposals. That power also extends to voting on legislation impacting those federal bodies.
Energy and Commerce was the first landing spot for a high-profile piece of legislation, Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Act, that contains a list of measures to help pave the way toward building a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev.
In an April 2017 committee hearing on the bill, Pallone said the nation “must find a long-term solution to the issue of nuclear waste.”
“With more and more nuclear power reactors scheduled to shut down in the coming years, surrounding communities are realizing that the nuclear waste currently sitting in dry casks and spent fuel pools at these sites will be stored there indefinitely when the plant closes, absent a workable national solution,” Pallone said.
However, he focused his comments on the need for interim storage of spent reactor fuel, as opposed to the permanent solution Yucca Mountain is supposed to represent.
Congress in 1982 gave the Energy Department until Jan. 31, 1998, to begin removing tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. More than two decades later, that process has not begun and the Yucca Mountain approach remains hotly contested. The House in recent years has supported efforts by the Trump administration to revive the long-dormant project. But the Senate has opposed any funding and has had its way in the last two budget cycles.
Meanwhile, the NRC is reviewing two license applications for facilities in Texas and New Mexico that could hold the used fuel until the repository is ready.
While Pallone voted in favor of the Shimkus bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee in June 2017 and then on the House floor in May of this year, he expressed misgivings about the proposal.
“By explicitly stating that interim storage cannot be approved until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission makes a final decision on a permanent repository, I fear that we are not providing certainty for interim storage or permanent disposal,” the New Jersey lawmaker said during a 2017 hearing. “In fact, under the bill as currently drafted, it is difficult for me to see how any private entity could obtain financing to construct interim storage.”
The House Democratic Caucus was expected this week to vote on committee chairs, but that was delayed by memorial services for former President George H.W. Bush, who died last week, a congressional staffer noted. The Caucus vote is still expected this month, the staffer said.
While the staffer expects Pallone to become chairman, he did not know who might become vice chairman at Energy and Commerce. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who is retiring, currently holds that position.
Walden announced Nov. 30 the House Republican Steering Committee had elected him ranking member for Energy and Commerce. “Under my leadership, the Energy and Commerce Committee has worked in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner to advance key legislation for our district,” the Oregon congressman said in a press release, adding there is “much more work to be done.” Walden became chairman two years ago and replaced Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), whose term at the helm expired.
Walden’s congressional district lies about 40 miles from the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, which holds some of the high-level radioactive waste that also would be directed to Yucca Mountain. He has been clear in supporting efforts to push the project forward, including Shimkus’ plan.
“It’s time for the Department of Energy to fulfill their legal obligation to dispose of this waste …,” Walden wrote in a June 2017 commentary in the East Oregonian newspaper. “Thankfully, we’re working towards a durable solution at the Energy and Commerce Committee and rest assured, we will get this waste consolidated and safely stored in its permanent home in Yucca Mountain.”
For the committees that hold the purse strings, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) is the ranking Democrat on House Appropriations and could be line to become chair. The Republicans have already chosen Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) as the panel’s ranking member. She is effectively swapping in for current Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), who is retiring from Congress.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) has headed the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, which develops the first congressional budget proposals for DOE and the NRC – including for nuclear waste storage and disposal operations. Simpson, a longtime proponent of funding Yucca Mountain, plans to remain on the subcommittee.
Subcommittee Ranking Member Kaptur is generally expected to become its chairman, sources agreed. Kaptur, now serving her 17th term in the House, also voted in favor of the Shimkus bill.
“I think we need to move forward definitively and address the nuclear waste question in this country,” she said in September.
Upon passage in the House last spring, the Shimkus bill went to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It has not moved since then, and time is running out for passage before the 116th Congress is gaveled in early next month.
The committee is led by Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.). Both are expected to stay on in their current posts. The committee also has oversight of the NRC, including nominees to the commission.
The incoming House committee chairs — Pallone, Lowey, and Kaptur — represent states that have nuclear power plants and their accompanying spent fuel, noted Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste watchdog for the nongovernmental advocacy group Beyond Nuclear. He urged them to focus on hardened on-site storage of that material rather than rushing toward storage or disposal methods that would involve large-scale transportation programs.
“The high risk transport impacts in NJ, OH, and NY alone should give these new Democratic House committee chairs pause–large numbers of truck, train, and/or barge shipments of irradiated nuclear fuel would impact each one’s home district and state in major ways,” Kamps said by email Friday.
