Two Nevada legislative panels on Saturday approved more than $7 million from 2017 to 2019 for the state to fight President Donald Trump’s plan to restart the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev., the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees approved the funding as part of Nevada’s state budget for the next two years. The state’s Agency for Nuclear Projects would receive some $3.8 million from the legislature, while the Nevada Attorney General’s Office would get about $3.4 million to fight Yucca, the newspaper reported.
The Nevada Legislature is expected to finalize the state budget in May.
The Trump administration has proposed spending some part of $120 million in fiscal 2018 to restart the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a repository for spent nuclear fuel from power plants and other high-level nuclear waste. Part of the funds would also be used to advance efforts fo consolidated interim storage of spent fuel before the permanent repository is built.
Nevada’s fiscal year begins July 1 and ends on June 30. The state’s entire U.S. congressional delegation opposes Yucca.
Separately, the Nevada Senate on Monday will consider a bill that formally expresses the bicameral legislature’s longstanding opposition to Yucca. The legislation has already passed the state’s Nevada General Assembly and would not need to be signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval (R), who is himself staunchly opposed to Yucca.
