The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May spent $10,789 from the Nuclear Waste Fund, leaving its available balance at $457,235, according to the latest update to Congress.
The agency spent nearly all of that — $10,366 – on costs from a February meeting of the Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Board and collecting information about possible locations for resumption of hearings in its adjudication of the Department of Energy license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
“[A] large portion of the May expenditures are for the trailing contract costs from the February 2018 LSNARP meeting, specifically for the contract facilitator and transcripts,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email Friday. “Also included are agency staff hours spent on items such as the monthly congressional report.”
The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Boards suspended the Yucca license review in September 2011, at the commission’s direction, as the Obama administration sought other means for permanent disposal of the nation’s commercial and defense radioactive waste. The Trump administration has sought to revive the licensing process but has yet to persuade Congress to fund the effort.
Adjudicatory hearings were previously held near McCarran International Airport, but that site has been decommissioned since 2011. The NRC has indicated at least some future hearings could be held in Nevada. But, absent additional congressional appropriations, the agency does not have enough money from the Nuclear Waste Fund to restart the process.
The LSN Advisory Review Panel met earlier this year to discuss options for reconstituting the database of millions of documents related to the Yucca Mountain adjudication. The system was retired in 2011 and the documents moved to the NRC’s online documents library. Much like the adjudication, more money from the Nuclear Waste Fund would be needed for the NRC to actually proceed with reviving the Licensing Support Network.
The agency had about $13.5 million available from the fund when a federal judge in August 2013 ordered it to proceed with the licensing process. It has since then spent nearly $13.1 million, with another $29,921 that is unexpended but already obligated.
