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 open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev.
In a joint session that was webcast, the state’s Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee 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 funding is split evenly for the state’s 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 fiscal years, which begin July 1. The panels approved the proposals on a voice vote and without any discussion.
Within the $3.8 million approved for the biennium for the Agency for Nuclear Projects, part of the governor’s office, was some $272,000 for contracts the state will fund as part of its fight against Trump’s proposal to resume the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository.
The state agency has previously contracted with outside legal help and other branches of the Nevada government as part of its fight against Yucca.
The committees also approved some $3.4 million for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office nuclear waste litigation program. This program covers the costs of fighting DOE’s proposal to license Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety Licensing Board.
After DOE filed an application to license Yucca Mountain in 2008 — a process the Barack Obama administration halted in 2010 — Nevada challenged the technical merits of the agency’s proposal by raising more than 200 contentions with the license. The quasi-legal process of resolving the contentions could take between two and four years, experts on both sides of the Yucca debate estimate.
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 for consolidated interim storage of spent fuel before the permanent repository is built. The next budget year begins on Oct. 1.
Separately, the Nevada Senate Committee on Commerce, Labor, and Energy on Friday approved a measure that formally expresses the bicameral Legislature’s longstanding opposition to Yucca. The joint resolution, which already passed the state’s General Assembly, would not need to be signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval (R), himself staunchly opposed to Yucca, to become the Legislature’s official position.
There were 25 days left in Nevada’s 2017 legislative session at press time Friday for RadWaste Monitor. All bills must pass by then or be tabled.
