Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
4/4/2014
Rep. John Shimkus (R- Ill.) reiterated his frustrations with the Department of Energy’s decision to shutter the Yucca Mountain waste repository project and to pursue a new approach for developing interim storage sites in an exchange with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz this week. “Your job is to comply with the laws of the land and you continually thwart doing that,” Shimkus said during a hearing the House Energy and Power Subcommittee held this week on DOE’s FY 2015 budget request. Shimkus has long been a vocal advocate of Yucca Mountain as the solution to the nation’s spent nuclear fuel problem, and his time for questioning during the hearing reflected his passion for the subject, resulting in multiple occurrences of him raising his voice and cutting Moniz off before the Secretary could answer.
Notably, Shimkus got particularly heated over the subject of the lack of funding for Yucca Mountain in DOE’s budget request. “Mr. Secretary, this is a budget hearing, and what we’re trying to find out is why you aren’t submitting money to comply with the law. And by not submitting money in your proposed budget, in conclusion, you are directing your agency to not follow the law,” Shimkus said. In response, Moniz sought to defend the Department’s request. “We have more than adequate funding right now to do all of the responses that might be called for from the NRC to support their process,” Moniz said, referring to the $16 million in unobligated funds DOE currently has for Yucca Mountain licensing activities. Moniz went on to say that “our budget request is for all activities which are authorized under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.”
Moniz’s response was in line with the statement he made the previous day before the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. “In the budget request, the key issue is that we are proposing activities — all certainly authorized under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act — to advance on issues like transportation and storage that we believe are absolutely essential for pursuing any waste strategy — certainly the consent-based strategy,” he said. Moniz’s statement came in response to a question from Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) who made a point to ask about the funding requested in the FY15 budget for nuclear waste management by beginning the hearing with the topic. “What does your FY ’15 budget request do in order to comply with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and move forward towards safe geological storage of nuclear waste across the country?” Simpson asked. “Because if we don’t solve this problem, nuclear energy is not going to move forward as it should.”
Nuclear Waste Policy Act Only Allows Yucca Mountain
DOE’s efforts to implement some of the major strategies outlined in its ‘Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste’ are limited due to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act’s strict adherence to only allowing movement towards Yucca Mountain. In its FY 2015 budget request, the Department is seeking $30 million for activities to continue develop a consent-based siting process for new waste facilities, along with various research studies, among other efforts.
Shimkus also voiced at this week’s hearing his displeasure with language within the request calling for new legislation for nuclear waste management. The Obama Administration is seeking to access the funds in the Nuclear Waste Fund to help off-set some off the costs of implementing pilot interim waste storage facilities by including a legislative proposal to ‘reform’ how the fund is used as a way to tap into the NWF’s resources. “So let me get this straight, the Administration doesn’t like the existing law and is choosing not to execute it,” Shimkus said. “So the Administration wants Congress to write a new law that it might like better, but won’t propose to Congress what that new law should look like, and in the meantime, you want to keep spending tax payer money on your strategy even after the DC Circuit Court noted that it is based on assumptions directly contrary to law and has directed DOE, that’s you, to stop collecting the Nuclear Waste Fund fees from electricity consumers. If the Administration won’t follow the laws on the books, why should we have any confidence that you will follow a new law?”
Moniz did not have a direct answer for the congressman on the proposed legislation, saying he would have to check with colleagues and get back with a better answer. He did, however, point to his work with the Senate on the Nuclear Waste Administration Act bill that would create a new independent agency to handle the nation’s high level radioactive waste as well as create a consent-based siting approach for interim storage as evidence to his willingness to work with Congress on new legislation.
