The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory in September spent $11,645 of its remaining balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund on federal court litigation, according to the latest expense report to Congress.
The September expenses, totaling $12,564, leave the nuclear industry regulator with access to $430,746 in unobligated money from the federal fund intended to pay for licensing, development, and construction of the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste disposal facility in Nevada.
The report sent to Capitol Hill last week does not specify how the court-related funds were spent, but notes in a separate section that the state of Nevada in August petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to force Commissioner David Wright to recuse himself from adjudicating the license application for the Yucca Mountain repository. The state says Wright has shown himself to be unfairly biased toward that project, a claim the former energy consultant denies.
“Agency attorneys have provided legal support in connection with this petition,” which the NRC has requested the court dismiss, according to the report. The regulator spent $1,448 on federal legal costs in August as well.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would rule on approval of the Department of Energy license application filed in 2008. The Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later, but the D.C. Circuit in August 2013 ordered the NRC to resume the licensing process. It has since spent nearly $13.1 million of the over $13.5 million it had on hand at the time, primarily on a safety evaluation report and supplemental environmental impact statement for the license adjudication.
Along with the legal costs, the NRC in September spent $919 from the Nuclear Waste Fund on program planning and support in September.
Nuclear utilities paid more than $40 billion into the fund from 1983 to 2014, when the Obama administration halted collections. The total fund balance was $39 billion as of May 2018, according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Leaders at the NRC have been clear that there is not much left they can do without additional appropriations from the fund via Congress. The Trump administration has tried to secure that funding in its first two budget requests, but Congress had denied it both times.
Commissioners recently agreed to an NRC staff recommendation to stop searching for a site in Nevada to hold adjudicatory hearings on the license application until it is clear whether the space will be needed.
