There was no word Monday on whether three nominees for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission might finally get up-or-down votes on the Senate floor after the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada was blanked on funding for fiscal 2018.
There had been chatter on Capitol Hill that zeroing out the underground repository might persuade Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) to lift his hold on Senate staffer Annie Caputo to fill a vacancy of the nuclear-industry regulator. While the hold has persisted, the upper chamber has also taken no action on the two other nominees: South Carolina energy consultant David Wright and serving Commissioner Jeff Baran.
Heller has made clear his unwavering opposition to importing spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste into his state. The NRC would be the adjudicator for the U.S. Energy Department’s license application to build the disposal facility, which the Trump administration has sought to revive.
The lawmaker’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
For fiscal 2018, the White House requested $120 million for DOE and $30 million for the NRC to resume Yucca licensing proceedings. The omnibus budget approved last week provides none of that.
Congress is in recess for the next two weeks, returning on April 9. Asked for an update on the NRC nominees, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) forwarded a schedule that lists the next set of nominees to be considered that day; the list does not include any of the NRC nominees.
The Trump administration issued all three nominations last year. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee forwarded Caputo and Wright for a floor vote in July 2017, followed by Baran in October.
Baran’s current terms ends on June 30. At that point, the commission could be left with two members, Chairman Kristine Svinicki and Commissioner Stephen Burns, below the three-member level needed to sustain a quorum.
