Leaders in the Nevada county where the federal government wants to build a nuclear waste repository on Wednesday criticized several key elements of legislation aimed at resolving the longstanding impasse over management of the radioactive material.
“The Nye County Commission remains in support of the proposition that the Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding should be completed so that the science behind the proposed repository can be fully explored and evaluated by qualified scientists and technical experts,” Commissioner Leo Blundo wrote in a letter to Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the top members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Blundo sent his letter ahead of the committee’s hearing today on the 2019 Nuclear Waste Administration Act.
Murkowski is the lead sponsor for the bill, with Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Among its measures, the legislation would: transfer responsibility for nuclear waste management from the Department of Energy to a new federal organization; require community consent for hosting a nuclear waste facility; and establish a program to license, build, and operate one or more consolidated interim storage sites for spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Blundo said there is little chance of obtaining and maintaining full consent for a nuclear waste site from impacted states, counties, cities, and tribes. “What if a State consents but one of its Senators opposes the project. What if one Member of Congress from that State objects,” he wrote.
The county commissioner also made the case that moving forward with Yucca Mountain or another repository eliminates the need for interim storage.
The Nye County Commission supports separate legislation that emphasizes steps to bring the Yucca Mountain repository into existence, according to Blundo. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 has been filed in the House and is pending in the Senate.
