Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/16/2015
Yucca Mountain supporter John Shimkus (R-Ill.) believes that with the new Republican Senate, funding for the shuttered repository will be included in the next appropriations bill, he said this week in a briefing with reporters. Shimkus has long been a vocal advocate of Yucca Mountain as the solution to the nation’s spent nuclear fuel problem, and during the briefing, he previewed how Yucca-supporters anticipate bringing the project back on-line. “We have every expectation that we have a better chance of moving [funding] through now that we have a Republican Senate,” Shimkus, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, said. “One of the biggest bipartisan votes of the last couple Congresses is continued support for Yucca Mountain, and we have every expectation that will be the House position.”
Although the Obama Administration shuttered the project in 2010, deeming it “unworkable,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s release of the Volume Three Safety Evaluation Report this past fall said the design at Yucca Mountain meets requirements for post-closure safety, renewing pro-Yucca sentiments in Congress.
Shimkus also indicated that he is working on an incentives bill that would increase Nevada’s willingness to participate in the project. The bill would include “sweeteners” such as infrastructure improvements in roadways, rail spurs, and land issues, economic development dollars, and research and development funding, according to Shimkus. “I do believe that we will be successful moving a spending bill, and I think there are some folks in Nevada that understand that they would rather be part of the process, to be able to have a say, than not,” Shimkus said.
Return to Regular Order Could Help Yucca
One of the biggest areas Yucca could make a comeback, according to industry experts, is within the Energy and Water appropriations bill. While it appears clear that the House will once again introduce funding for Yucca Mountain and the Senate will look toward interim storage, a return to regular Senate order, as outlined by new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could open the possibility of the two chambers working out a solution that will move forward the nation’s nuclear waste policy. “Less obvious, but certainly important is Mitch McConnell’s commitment that he has reiterated several times in press conferences and talk shows that he will restore the nature of the senate to what they call regular order and an open amendment process,” Pegasus Group President Ed Davis said this week at the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management’s 30th Spent Fuel management Seminar in Washington, D.C. “For those of you from out of town, that is a lot of legislative talk, but it is enormously important. Whether that actually occurs or not remains to be seen, but that is a big deal.”
The return to regular order would offer two different approaches for pro-Yucca supporters to move the project forward. Whereas former Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) kept a tight grip on the amendment process, an open amendment process would enable Senators to introduce changes and add-on to bills that could enable a simple up or down vote on the viability of Yucca Mountain added onto another bill.
The other area of regular order that could help push forward nuclear waste policy is the conference committee, a combination of House and Senate members meant to hash out differences between the different chambers’ bills. “The way they settle their differences is traditionally in the conference committee,” Davis said. “We have just not had a conference committee settle the difference in the House and Senate for a while.” A return to the conference committee would enable the two chambers to settle their nuclear waste policy differences, most likely in the energy and water funding bill, without the input of the rest of Congress. Once the committee agrees to the changes, both chambers vote on simple yes or no vote without amendments. According to Davis, this is the area where Yucca funding is most likely to return.
Murkowski Lists Nuclear Waste Policy Among Committee Priorities
New Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), meanwhile, included nuclear waste policy as a priority the committee will discuss in the next two months, she said during remarks made last week about moving the Keystone XL Pipeline legislation out of committee. Murkowski co-authored the “Nuclear Waste Administration Act” bill with former Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in 2013, but the bill did not have any momentum to make it out of committee. Among its provisions, the bill would create a new independent agency to handle the nation’s high level radioactive waste as well as create a consent-based siting approach for interim storage, drawing from some of the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.
Murkowski listed nuclear policy among a list of issues, including movement of the energy spending bill for Fiscal Year 2016. “Our committee will devote much of January and February to hearings on a wide variety of issues,” Murkowski said. “Other potential topics for hearings include electric grid innovation, nuclear waste policy, OCS development and revenue-sharing, the administration’s Quadrennial Energy Review, critical minerals, and oversight. We will also hold budget hearings, to consider the president’s request, and return to the practice of having the secretaries of Energy and the Interior regularly appear before this panel.”
NEI President Predicts Congressional Attention on Nuclear Waste Policy
The nuclear industry expects legislative movement on nuclear waste policy from both chambers in the coming months, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Marvin Fertel said this week in a Q&A with Nuclear Energy Overview, NEI’s news organization. Fertel predicted that the House would focus on funding for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s license review of the Yucca Mountain application while also working on an incentives package for Nevada. The Senate, Fertel said, would most likely continue its focus on consolidated interim storage.
“On legislation, we expect that both the House of Representatives and the Senate will begin to hold hearings on [used fuel management] in the next few months and begin to craft legislation for consideration later in the Congress,” Fertel said. “The House likely will focus on completing the license review for the Yucca Mountain project, providing benefits to Nevada, and addressing other issues related to implementing the project. The Senate’s focus may be somewhat different, including the possibility of developing consolidated interim storage while work continues toward a repository program.” Fertel also said that establishing a new management organization to lead the government’s used fuel disposal program remained a top priority for industry.
