Two members of Nevada’s congressional delegation this week reintroduced a bill that, if made law, would spell the final end of the proposed Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository.
The Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act, unveiled in a Tuesday press release by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev), “will ensure that state, local, and tribal governments are central to decisions regarding a permanent repository,” the lawmakers said.
The proposed bill would also give Nevadans a “meaningful voice” in discussions around the Nye County, Nev., Yucca Mountain repository — the only site designated by law to permanently store spent nuclear fuel, and which has been on ice since the Barack Obama administration in 2010 pulled the project’s funding.
“Nevadans have made it crystal clear that they don’t want a permanent nuclear waste dump in their backyard,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “I’ve opposed every attempt to restart the failed Yucca Mountain project, and will continue to champion this legislation that respects the voices of our state, local, and tribal governments in Nevada that have been silenced by an unworkable process.”
The measure is based on recommendations from the 2012 Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future and the Department of Energy’s 2017 consent-based siting report, the release said. It would prevent the agency from using the federal Nuclear Waste Fund for developing a permanent repository until the Secretary of Energy secures written consent from the governor of a repository host state, as well as from local and tribal communities.
As of Wednesday, the text of the proposed legislation, which was referred Tuesday to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was not publicly available. However, the Silver State lawmakers have introduced similar bills in the last two congressional sessions — neither of which ever saw a vote.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing a September request from then-Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) to reopen its licensing review of the Yucca Mountain site, put on hold in 2010. Sisolak said at the time that, if the process were to be restarted, Nevada would move to terminate the proceedings altogether.
NRC Commissioner Bradley Crowell declined to comment to RadWaste Monitor during an interview Feb. 7 about whether the agency would consider granting such a request.
