Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/1/2015
Two Nevada House lawmakers failed this week to remove funding for Yucca Mountain in the House 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill during the floor amendment process. Reps. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.) both offered amendments that would eliminate the $150 million reserved for the Department of Energy to move forward with Yucca Mountain. Heck suggested the $150 million should go towards university research on nuclear waste that could help make disposal more manageable in the future, while Titus proposed removing the $150 million entirely. Both amendments failed on a voice vote.
The bill provides $150 million to the Department of Energy for nuclear waste disposal activities as outlined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and $25 million to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission so it can complete the Yucca Mountain licensing review. The House passed the bill this week on a 240 to 177 vote. Now, it is up to the Senate to pass its version of the 2016 energy spending bill to move the process forward. That bill, though, still has not been introduced.
Heck argued that spending money on research to develop advance disposal technology would prove to be more valuable than spending money on a “flawed project.” “The fact is that dumping our country’s highly radioactive nuclear waste in a hole and hoping for the best is a 20th century solution,” Heck said in debate on the House floor. “Instead, we must encourage the use of 21st century technology to address this issue. My amendment eliminates the money earmarked for the Yucca Mountain High-Level Waste Geological Repository and increases funding for the Nuclear Energy University Program within DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy so that we can better support our scientists and universities as they work to develop a 21st century solution to this problem.” He added, “Strengthening and supporting the research and innovations already taking place at the [University of Nevada-Las Vegas] and other universities throughout the country to solve our Nation’s nuclear waste problem is a much wiser investment of Federal resources than the flawed Yucca Mountain proposal.”
Titus, meanwhile, reiterated her claims that Yucca Mountain was no more than a political sideshow, citing the $5 million in the bill that would go to affected local communities near Yucca Mountain. She said this funding amounted to a “slush fund” for local officials to support the project. “I want to bring my colleagues’ attention to a particular line in this bill that appropriates $5 million for units of local government to support Yucca Mountain,” Titus said during debate. “This simply creates a slush fund to pay off local governments in return for their support of this failed project.” She added, “Taxpayer-funded junkets and photo ops cannot change the fact that this project has never been based on sound science but, instead, stems from targeted politics.”
Simpson: “Yucca Mountain is Law of the Land”
House Energy and Water Appropriations Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) responded to both amendments by stating that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act designates Yucca Mountain as the nation’s commercial repository. “Yucca Mountain is the law of the land,” Simpson said during House floor debate. “You have to remember that. Yucca Mountain is the law of the land, even though the administration has failed to follow that law. It has seen overwhelming support in countless numbers of votes and countless numbers of times in the House and is the only permanent repository option we have on the table.” He added, “This amendment would put in jeopardy the more than $15 billion—let me repeat that, the more than $15 billion—that has been spent so far on this program.”
Simpson also advocated for letting the licensing process run its course, so a fuller scientific picture of the site could be established. Following the completion of the license review, the NWPA calls for a congressional vote on whether to move forward with the project, Simpson reminded the lawmakers. “Once the Yucca Mountain application is finished, all Members of this body and the Senate will have the opportunity to decide whether to move forward to construct and use the facility, but killing the process at this point, I think, is shortsighted, even though I understand the gentleman’s concern,” Simpson said.
White House Threatens Veto Over Yucca Funding
The Obama Administration threatened to veto the House bill should it include funding to jump start the Yucca Mountain license review, among other reasons, according to a statement of administration policy issued this week. President Barack Obama shuttered the Yucca Mountain project in 2010 after the Department of Energy deemed the site “unworkable,” but pro-Yucca supporters have gained momentum in the past year. “The Administration objects to the funding provided in the bill for Yucca Mountain and is disappointed with the rejection of the practical solutions proposed in the President’s nuclear waste strategy,” the policy statement said. “As reflected in the FY 2016 Budget request, this strategy incorporates important and workable elements, such as consent-based siting, interim storage of waste, and program funding reforms that are essential to the success of a Nuclear Waste Program.”
While DOE requested a reform that would enable it to implement its preferred waste management strategy, House appropriators rejected the proposal for ignoring Yucca Mountain. Its bill report specifically rejected the Department’s proposal to reform the Nuclear Waste Policy Act so as to allow interim storage.
