The nominee for the No. 2 position at the Department of Energy on Wednesday affirmed the Trump administration’s intention to move ahead with a program for interim storage of nuclear waste rather than continuing to press for disposal under Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
“Let me be very clear about this. The president has been very clear on this: The administration will not be pursuing Yucca Mountain as a solution for nuclear waste, and I am fully supportive of the president’s decision and applaud him for taking action when so many others have failed to do so,” Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes said during his Senate nomination hearing to become deputy energy secretary.
Menezes was responding to a question from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who noted he had offered a different message during a February appearance on Capitol Hill.
Testifying before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Feb. 12, Menezes said the administration was “trying to do is put together a process that will give us a path toward permanent storage at Yucca.” By that time, though, President Donald Trump had tweeted in support of Nevada’s opposition to the long-planned waste repository and the Energy Department had excised the program from its latest budget request.
This came after Congress rebuffed White House attempts in three consecutive budget plans to resume licensing of the Yucca Mountain disposal site. In its place is a proposal for fiscal 2021 to spend $27.5 million on an Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program.
Menezes did not answer directly when Cortez Masto, attending the hearing remotely, asked whether the administration aims to use Yucca Mountain for interim storage of nuclear waste.
The budget request is intended “to ensure that we have an interim storage program in place,” Menezes said. “That will be a comprehensive approach to look at finding a solution and implementing one that is flexible for both interim storage and permanent down the road, as well as both spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.”
