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 that 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 radioactive waste repository and the Energy Department had excised the program from its latest budget request. Menezes quickly walked back his statement.
This occurred after Congress rebuffed White House attempts in three consecutive budget proposals to resume licensing of the Yucca Mountain disposal site. In its place, DOE’s $35.4 billion budget plan for fiscal 2021 would provide $27.5 million for an Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program.
Menezes did not answer directly when Cortez Masto, attending the hearing remotely to practice social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, asked whether the administration aims to pursue Yucca Mountain for interim storage of nuclear waste until permanent disposal is ready.
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 and permanent storage down the road, as well as to handle both spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.”
The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act put the Energy Department in charge of permanent disposal of both types of radioactive waste, a stockpile that has grown to roughly 100,000 metric tons spread across dozens of facilities in over 30 states. More than 80,000 metric tons of that is spent fuel, which mostly remains held above ground at the nuclear power plants where it was generated.
Congress updated the law in 1987 to direct the waste to disposal in a geologic repository on the federal property at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Nevada’s state and federal leadership have long opposed the project, citing the potential dangers of radiation release and harm to the crucial tourism industry. (A recent earthquake in the seismically active region provided fresh grist for their argument, as reported by E&E News.)
Waste disposal was to begin by Jan. 31, 1998, but DOE did not apply for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the facility until 2008. The Obama administration defunded licensing two years afterward, ultimately embarking on a short-lived program to restart the siting process in willing communities.
President Donald Trump turned back to Yucca Mountain upon taking office in January 2017, seeking money for the Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission in fiscal 2018, 2019, and 2020 to resume licensing. While the GOP-led House was amenable, that was a no-go in the Senate, where appropriators have focused on interim storage. After Democrats took control of the House in the 2018 midterms, Yucca was pretty much off the board across Capitol Hill.
Interim storage offers the option of expedited consolidation of nuclear waste in a small number of centralized facilities, theoretically relieving the federal government of tens of billions of dollars in liabilities to nuclear utilities. Those companies have already successfully sued the government for over $7 billion, noting they paid into the federal fund for the repository but remain stuck with the used fuel decades past the deadline set by Congress.
Administration officials have discussed the turnaround on Yucca Mountain as accepting reality that Congress will not fund licensing, while critics of the budget request for interim storage have portrayed the decision as a clearly political move in an election year to curry favor in Nevada. Trump in 2016 lost to Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the state, where Democrats hold the governor’s seats, both positions in the Senate, and all but one of the four House spots.
For the federal budget year beginning Oct. 1, the DOE interim storage program would include initial activities including preparing an “integrated program plan” and early design concepts; starting identification of possible locations for storage; readying the capabilities and infrastructure that would be required for transport; and updating data on the amounts of nuclear waste. The work would be managed through the department’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal told a House panel in March that DOE planned to issue a request for proposals for basic design of an interim storage facility. That procurement notice does not appear to have been issued, and the department has not responded to multiple queries on the matter.
Energy Department officials have played down the potential for direct partnerships with corporate teams that are already planning interim spent-fuel storage sites in New Mexico and Texas. Testifying before congressional panels this year, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and others have focused on research and development of interim storage, to avoid running afoul of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act language specifying that the department can only take title to the waste once a permanent repository is built.
Asked by Cortez Masto, Menezes said he was not familiar with two 2019 bills aimed at addressing aspects of the nuclear waste logjam: the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act, filed in both chambers of Congress by Cortez Masto and other Nevada lawmakers, which would require assent for a storage or disposal site from the state and impacted communities and Indian tribes; and the Nuclear Waste Administration Act, headed by Environment and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), which aims to promote both consent-based siting and interim storage.
“I know that the bills are under review, I myself am not that familiar with them,” Menezes said. “But I do promise to look at those bills and offer any technical assistance. The administration has not taken a view, a position, on those bills. However, we do know that the solution for nuclear storage will rest with Congress, and we do pledge to work with you as you develop the legislation.”
The nominee also committed to providing Cortez Masto with an update on a nuclear-waste report required from DOE under 2020 appropriations legislation passed in December. That report, which was due 90 days after enactment of the bill, is to address “innovative options for disposition of high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel management,” specifically those that are cost-effective, possible over the short term, and ensure engagement with stakeholders.
Menezes was sworn in as undersecretary of energy in November 2017, becoming DOE’s lead adviser on energy policy and energy technologies. He has already taken on added authority to make decisions on most department operations, minus the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, after Dan Brouillette moved up from deputy to become secretary of energy in December. The White House in March nominated Menezes to the deputy position.
Prior to joining DOE leadership, Menezes was an executive with Berkshire Hathaway Energy. His career in government and the private sector has included stints as chief counsel, energy and environment, for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and as an executive with the Ohio-based utility American Electric Power.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as of Friday had not scheduled a vote on Menezes’ nomination, but nothing during Wednesday’s hearing suggested he will not be advanced to the full Senate.
“I look forward to advancing your nomination to the full floor for confirmation very rapidly, and I would hope that you would enjoy the same, strong bipartisan level of support that you saw back in 2017,” during his nomination as DOE undersecretary, Murkowski said via video feed from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
