The Trump administration is exploring restarting the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada, a source close to the Trump transition team told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Tuesday.
The source, who requested anonymity, said that if the administration resumes the licensing process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it would likely mean reviving the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, the entity that was charged with carrying out disposal of spent nuclear fuel as laid out in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Following re-establishment of that office, which was stripped of funding in fiscal 2011 as the Obama administration moved the Yucca Mountain project, it would likely take six months to a year to restart the licensing process, according to the source. The subsequent NRC review could take about three years.
Republican lawmakers in the House Energy and Commerce Committee have been pushing for the Energy Department to restart Yucca Mountain proceedings. Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and panel member Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) urged Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in March to “expeditiously” resume the licensing process. They also sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking for a congressional audit to see what financial resources are available to the NRC should the licensing process resume. The GAO findings are expected in the spring.
The NRC last week formalized plans to spend $700,000 of $1.27 million in its remaining Yucca Mountain funds to update repository analysis documents, placing the agency in a better position should licensing activities resume.
Longtime Yucca Mountain opponent Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who is retiring in January, reiterated his stance on Monday.
“If the Republicans want to start off by spending a lot of money … let them go to Yucca Mountain,” Reid told reporters, according to The Hill. “It’s doomed to failure. To get Yucca Mountain up and running again … they better put multiple billions of dollars.”
Shimkus in his own statement this week said he is “excited to work with the Trump Administration and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to quickly restore funding to continue the licensing process, as well as pass comprehensive nuclear waste management legislation for his signature.”
