Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) sent a letter Friday signed by 31 Republican Senators to Congressional appropriators, urging them to include funding for Yucca Mountain in a final Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The letter calls for the legislation to match the $45 million in Yucca Mountain funding provided in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill that passed the House earlier this year, with $20 million going to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for licensing and $25 million to the Department of Energy. Kirk dropped plans last week for an amendment to the Senate bill funding the repository and announced he would shift his focus to upcoming conference negotiations.
In recent months Kirk has led support in the Senate for Yucca Mountain, citing spent fuel safety concerns at Illinois power plants. “With billions of taxpayer dollars already spent and the growing age of the temporary storage sites across America, we urge you to support the bipartisan House language. Taxpayers should preserve Yucca Mountain as an option for the transportation of nuclear waste away from cities and ecosystems across America where the permanent storage of nuclear waste is clearly inappropriate,” states the letter to Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and House Energy and Water Appropriations Chair Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) and Ranking Member Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.).
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