The U.S. Senate will continue to reject the Department of Energy’s requests for funding to resume work on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) told Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday.
In a tense exchange during a Senate commerce committee hearing on national infrastructure, Heller asked Perry to confirm he had a role in DOE’s $120 million request in both the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years to pay for licensing Yucca Mountain and advancing interim storage of radioactive waste. Perry affirmed he did.
Senate appropriators stripped out the Yucca funding in their fiscal 2018 DOE funding bill, which is still waiting on a floor vote for the budget year that began on Oct. 1, 2017. It appears doubtful an anticipated omnibus spending plan for the remainder of the fiscal year will provide money for the program, according to recent reporting.
“In 2018 that language will also be removed,” said Heller, an ardent opponent of bringing nuclear waste to his state. “Would you anticipate in 2019 that you’ll request it again?”
“I’ll follow the law, sir, and I expect the results will be about the same,” Perry responded, apparently referring to the 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which designated Yucca Mountain as the permanent disposal site for tens of thousands of tons of used commercial nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Addressing Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Heller emphasized the potential danger of shipping that waste from nuclear sites around the country to Nevada. A total of 9,495 storage casks would travel by rail, and 2,650 by truck, over 50 years, Heller said.
“These shipments would use 22,000 miles of railways, 7,000 miles of highways, crossing over 44 states, and a population of about 175 million people. In your opinion does that look safe to you?” he said.
Chao said she was aware of the sensitivity of the matter, but acknowledged she is not well-informed about Yucca Mountain.
