House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) laid into Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns on Wednesday, demanding to know why his agency did not request any funding in fiscal 2017 for Yucca Mountain licensing activities.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t express my dissatisfaction that once more the commission failed to include funding to continue consideration of Yucca Mountain’s license application,” Shimkus said.
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved its energy and water spending bill, which includes $170 million to carry out Yucca Mountain licensing activities — $150 million for operations tied to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, which designated Yucca Mountain as America’s national repository site for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, and $20 million for NRC to complete licensing procedures for the facility. The Senate did not provide funding for Yucca, instead requesting $61 million for an integrated waste management pilot program that would lay the foundation for the Department of Energy’s consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage.
In describing Yucca Mountain as an unworkable project, DOE has declined to defend the license application before NRC. On Wednesday, during a subcommittee hearing on the NRC budget, Shimkus cited a recent hearing in which Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) also questioned Burns on the absence of Yucca funding. Burns responded then that it’s the president’s budget request.
“Here’s the question: How does your legal standing as an independent safety regulator comport with your comment that it’s the president’s budget?” Shimkus asked Burns.
Burns responded that NRC is the regulator, and it ultimately must make a decision on any application before it.
“The difficulty that we’re in is that we don’t have an applicant that’s sponsoring its application in front of us,” Burns said. “We have done the work that we can do.”
Shimkus said the agency has an obligation to carry out the terms of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
“Yet you don’t request the dollars,” Shimkus said. “It’s not the president’s budget. It’s your budget. You’re independent of the executive branch, so that’s the issue I want to raise. I’m tired of agencies not following the law, especially when they’re independent.”
NRC would receive roughly $936 million in funding under the House bill for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. Because the agency recovers about 90 percent of its budget from license fees, the net House appropriation is about $149 million. The Senate recommended about $940 million, with a $116 million net appropriation.
