The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November continued to spend just a few hundred dollars per month of its remaining balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund.
Spending of $238 for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with an unspent, unobligated balance of $405,977, according to the latest update to Congress regarding the fund intended to pay for the national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
The Department of Energy in 2008 filed its application with the NRC for a license to build and operate the geologic repository in Nye County, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later, but a federal appeals court in August 2013 ordered the NRC to resume work using its carryover balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund.
Since then, the NRC has spent just over $13.1 million of the more than $13.5 million it had on hand at the time of the court ruling. The majority, nearly $8.4 million, was used to complete the safety evaluation report for the license application.
The agency’s $431,977 remaining balance covers $26,223 in “unexpended obligations,” according to the new report. Those primarily involve contracts for the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses and contracts for a January 2018 virtual meeting of the Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel.
The Nuclear Waste Fund was established by the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which directed the Energy Department to build a permanent repository for the nation’s high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors. Congress amended the law in 1987 to direct that the repository be dug under Yucca Mountain.
Nuclear utilities paid into the fund through 2014, when the Obama administration suspended billing. As of the end of fiscal 2019 on Sept. 30 of last year, the fund had a total balance of $40.9 billion, according to the Energy Department.
