Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Vol. 22 No. 10
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Morning Briefing

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March 17, 2014

NRC CHAIR, DOE OFFICIAL TO TESTIFY ON YUCCA MTN. LICENSING PLANS TODAY

By ExchangeMonitor

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison Macfarlane is set to testify to House lawmakers today that the NRC will “act expeditiously” on how to proceed in the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain repository following a court ruling directing the Commission to resume its review. In her testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, released yesterday, Macfarlane outlined the steps still to be completed before the NRC could make a final decision on the license application, and noted that the Commission currently does not have sufficient funding to fully complete a review. While the NRC currently has approximately $11 million available, “the NRC does not have in reserve sufficient resources to complete all of the necessary steps in this licensing process,” Macfarlane said in her prepared testimony. “No additional funds for high-level waste were requested or appropriated to the NRC in fiscal year 2012 or fiscal year 2013. The matter of whether or not funds are appropriated for the fiscal year 2014 is before Congress and the fiscal year 2015 budget development process is well underway.”

In separate testimony slated to be given at today’s subcommittee hearing, DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Peter Lyons said the Obama Administration continues to support implementing a consent-based approach for locating waste storage facilities, as recommended by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, rather than moving forward with Yucca Mountain. “When this Administration took office, the timeline for opening Yucca Mountain had already been pushed back by two decades with no end in sight. It was clear that stalemate could continue indefinitely. Rather than continuing to spend billions of dollars more on a project that faces such strong opposition, the Administration believes a pathway similar to that the Blue Ribbon Commission laid out — a consent-based solution —is one that meets the country’s national and energy security needs and has the potential to gain the necessary public acceptance,” Lyons said in his prepared testimony.

The purpose of today’s hearing is for Subcommittee members to learn more about the plans of the Administration and the NRC for moving forward with restarting the Yucca Mountain license review in the wake of a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision that ruled that the NRC’s shutdown of the licensing was illegal and compelled the Commission to complete the review. The hearing is scheduled to be held in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington beginning at 10 a.m.

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