By Wayne Barber
The U.S. Senate on Monday overwhelmingly approved the nomination of Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Kristine Svinicki to another five-year term on the body. Meanwhile, two other nominees will have to wait until July for a committee vote on confirmation.
Svinicki was confirmed in an 88-9 floor vote. Most of the opposition came from Democrats, with the notable exception of Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.). Heller and Nevada’s other senator, Catherine Cortez Masto (D), both voted against Svinicki.
Nevada is the home of the proposed Yucca Mountain deep geologic repository for U.S. high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear reactor fuel. Lawmakers from the Silver State have frequently and vehemently said they don’t want the Energy Department and the NRC making Yucca Mountain home to other states’ waste without Nevada’s consent. They have publicly aired concerns about indications that Svinicki and NRC nominees David Wright and Annie Caputo would support licensing for the storage site.
The Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal would provide $30 million to the NRC and $110 million to the Department of Energy to resume the licensing process for Yucca Mountain, which the Obama administration canceled in 2010.
Svinicki has served on the commission since 2008, and is now set to stay on through June 30, 2022. President Donald Trump appointed her as NRC chair following his inauguration.
Had the Senate not confirmed Svinicki by today, the NRC would have lost its three-member quorum.
The other two current members of the nuclear regulatory panel are Obama administration holdovers: Jeff Baran, whose term expires June 30, 2018, and Stephen Burns, whose term expires June 30, 2019.
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works sent Svinicki’s nomination to the full chamber earlier this month in an expedited voice vote, just two days after the June 13 confirmation hearing for all three nominees.
A Senate Environment and Public Works Committee business meeting to vote on Wright and Caputo was expected this week before being pushed back to Wednesday, July 12.
Svinicki is a nuclear engineer who worked at the Energy Department prior to joining the NRC, including at the DOE office that oversaw development of the Yucca Mountain repository.
Caputo is a nuclear engineer and longtime congressional staffer who now serves as a senior policy adviser to Senate EPW Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wy.). Her backing of Yucca Mountain drew enough opposition from then-Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to keep her off the NRC in 2015, Power Magazine reported.
Wright is an energy consultant who has served in leadership positions of the South Carolina Public Service Commission and National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. In written commentaries and congressional testimony, he has called for “science over politics” to sustain funding for Yucca Mountain.
Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) has urged the Senate to oppose the Wright nomination.
“If confirmed, Mr. Wright will no doubt be a leading advocate for shoving the nation’s nuclear waste down the throats of Nevadans,” she said in a statement ahead of the June 13 confirmation hearing. “I urge my colleagues in the Senate to reject his nomination and admonish the President to select individuals for the NRC who will be open minded about the need to safely and responsibly store high-level waste with the consent of those directly affected.”
