The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects would get a small raise in the next two budget years to sustain the fight against federal plans to build a nuclear waste repository in the state
The agency is funded at slightly over $1.8 million in the state’s current budget year, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019. That would rise to just under $1.95 million in 2019-2020 and then just over that amount in the following year, if the Nevada Legislature sustains the funding plan largely prepared by former Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and tweaked by his successor, Steve Sisolak (D).
Roughly $650,000 would pay for five agency staffers each year, with nearly $920,000 directed annually toward contracts for outside experts and other services. Additional costs include travel, operating expenses, and information services.
For both 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the state budget plan lists separate funding levels requested by the agency and recommended by the governor. Some line items are identical and others vary slightly.
The proposed funding increase primarily reflects the planned reinstatement of the Agency For Nuclear Projects planning division director, a position eliminated during state financial troubles in 2011, Executive Director Robert Halstead said in discussing the budget on March 15 before a joint meeting of two Nevada Legislature fiscal committees.
The Agency for Nuclear Projects’ primary mission is to prevent licensing and potential construction of a disposal facility below Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors and high-level radioactive waste from federal defense operations.
Nevada leaders at the state and federal level have long opposed making their state home to tens of thousands of tons of waste from other states. During the committee hearing, Halstead reaffirmed Nevada’s position that the geology and hydrology of the selected site make it unsuitable for the repository, which would also damage the state’s critical tourism industry – a stance disputed by the program’s supporters.
The state successfully submitted 218 technical contentions on safety and transportation impacts against the Department of Energy’s 2008 license application for Yucca Mountain before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Obama administration defunded the proceeding in 2010, but that hasn’t stopped the Agency for Nuclear Projects from preparing for potential resumption. Much of its work in the next couple years will involve fine-tuning the existing contentions and preparing 30 to 50 more, Halstead testified. It is also readying to prepare witnesses for discovery and testimony should the NRC license adjudication restart.
“Our ongoing technical work in support of Nevada’s 218 licensing contentions is closely linked with developing new contentions,” Halstead told the committees. “In particular, we’re doing some very exciting new work in groundwater modeling, which may even have some larger implications than just this project.”
Speaking to RadWaste Monitor on Monday, Halstead said the state might revive some of the five lawsuits previously filed against the Yucca Mountain project. He declined to discuss details.
“We have plenty of Yucca Mountain work left to do,” he said in a telephone interview.
The Nevada Attorney General’s Office would be allocated more than $1.7 million in each of the next two budget years for nuclear waste litigation. That would also fund the state’s newer legal battle with the federal government over the Energy Department’s shipment of a half-metric-ton of plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site in late 2018.
Halstead told lawmakers that his agency and the Attorney General might request additional money based on funding for the NRC and DOE for Yucca licensing.
“It may be that we’re going to have an accelerated licensing proceeding once we see what’s actually in the DOE and NRC requests,” he said. “We would come back and ask for additional funds.”
Jessica Adair, chief of staff to state Attorney General Aaron Ford, said at the hearing $1.7 million per year would be sufficient – “if we were not using the same pot of money for the other type of litigation.”
The Trump administration requested funding for federal fiscal 2018 and the current fiscal 2019 to resume licensing for the Yucca Mountain repository, but was turned back each time by Congress.
For the upcoming fiscal 2020, the Energy Department requested $116 million for its Yucca Mountain and Interim Storage Program, while the NRC is seeking $38.5 million for its licensing activities.
The DOE funding plan would be split between two separate accounts, $90 million from Nuclear Waste Disposal and the remaining $26 million from Defense Nuclear Waste Disposal, “to resume regulatory activities concerning Yucca Mountain and initiate a robust interim storage program,” according to the department budget in brief issued on March 15. The department, as of deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor, had not released the full budget justification that could provide additional detail on its spending plan.
The NRC’s budget justification, made public Monday, did not provide much more about its side of licensing beyond what the agency said the week before in issuing its budget plan. The $38.5 million would pay for 77 full-time equivalent employees – attorneys and other personnel to evaluate the license application and address Nevada’s contentions.
“Principal activities would include support for, and restart of, the adjudicatory proceeding; infrastructure activities for hearing facilities and IT capabilities; support for rulemakings associated with the geologic repository operations area; and related support activities such as acquisitions, recruitment, staffing, and training,” according to the NRC budget justification.
If the proceeding is revived, Nevada estimates it will spend another $50 million to support its contentions during the NRC adjudication. The process would take four to five years, costing the Energy Department over $1.6 billion and the NRC $330 million, Halstead told lawmakers.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry is scheduled Tuesday to make his first appearance on Capitol Hill to discuss his agency’s fiscal 2020 budget plan. He will testify before the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, which does not include any lawmakers from Nevada but does feature Congress members representing states waiting to send their radioactive waste to a repository.
During trips home during Congress’ recess this week, members of the Nevada delegation unloaded on Perry and his agency for pushing Yucca and plutonium on the state.
“I’m especially proud to stand strong against this administration’s repeated efforts to revive Yucca Mountain. Nevada has made it clear: We will not, let me repeat that, we will not become the nation’s dumping ground for nuclear waste,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) said in a speech before the Nevada Senate and Assembly.
