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 weapons repository in the state, under the new biennial budget from Gov. Steve Sisolak (D).
The agency is funded at just 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.
Roughly one-third of the funding would pay for five agency staff, with the majority of the remaining spending directed toward contracts for outside experts and other services.
The funding increase primarily reflects the planned reinstatement of the agency planning division director, a position eliminated during state financial troubles in 2011, Executive Director Robert Halstead said in discussing the budget during a joint meeting of two Nevada Legislature committees.
The Agency for Nuclear Projects’ primary mission is to prevent licensing and potential construction of the radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Trump administration, in three successive budget requests, has sought to restart the licensing proceeding defunded by its predecessor. Congress has yet to appropriate the funding.
The state successfully submitted 218 technical contentions against the Department of Energy’s 2008 license application for Yucca Mountain before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The proceeding has been effectively dormant since 2010, but that hasn’t stopped the agency 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 said. It is also readying to prepare witnesses for discovery and testimony should the NRC adjudication restart.
Speaking to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing 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.
The Nevada Attorney General’s Office would be allocated $1.7 million in each of the next two budget years for nuclear waste litigation.
