DAY 1 – JAN. 20, 2017: Inauguration Day.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up to date on news affecting Department of Energy nuclear cleanup during the new administration’s crucial first days.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has left office, Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and a GOP president is moving into the White House. All of this opens the door for resuming licensing for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada this year – in fact, chatter around Washington suggests it’s a foregone conclusion.
Yucca was intended to be a one-size-fits-all underground repository for tens of thousands of tons of U.S. commercial and defense nuclear waste, but it ran afoul of the Obama administration, which ultimately determined that separate storage sites were better. Its future has been a topic of much discussion as President Barack Obama’s time in office wound down.
Should the Donald Trump administration move forward with Yucca licensing at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it could take three major steps in its first 100 days in office, according to informed observers.
The first objective would be to appoint nuclear-knowledgeable officials to high-ranking positions in the Energy Department, which would defend the license application before the NRC. Trump’s pick for energy secretary, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is better versed in oil and gas issues (though he has been instrumental in promoting nuclear waste storage in his state). That means he will need to turn to individuals who can take ownership of nuclear waste issues and flesh out policy.
NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki and former NRC Commissioner William Ostendorff, both Republicans who have supported Yucca Mountain in the past, have both been floated as potential political appointees under Perry. Consultant Ed Davis, who helped lead industry efforts in passing the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which designated Yucca Mountain as the sole site for a national repository for high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel, has also been in the conversation.
Another major step would be re-establishing DOE’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management to manage the repository program and pursue legislation to obtain the land and water rights at the site. That office would then signal to Congress that it intends to fulfill its obligations under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. For its part, the NRC would need to round up its own officials and contractors who previously handled Yucca Mountain licensing, as well as establish its panels to conduct the license review.
Finally, DOE would need to activate the license restart, which would require that Perry put the NRC on notice. A license restart will not require congressional authorization, but it will require funding through the congressional appropriations process.
There is cause to believe DOE could pursue this path. Trump’s transition team featured Yucca project backers, and his reported plan (per The Hill) for reshaping the Energy Department and other federal agencies is based on a Heritage Foundation policy proposal that calls for advancing the project and putting the nuclear industry in charge of spent fuel management.
There is speculation, though, that Perry’s DOE could temporarily punt on taking up Yucca Mountain relicensing, spending anywhere from 100 to 200 days to assess the current status of the repository and formulate an extensive strategy in how to proceed. Yucca Mountain also is considered third on the list of major priorities for the Energy Department, behind maintaining the country’s nuclear arsenal and cleanup and closure of nuclear waste sites.
The 1987 amendment to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act dictated that DOE focus all nuclear waste storage efforts on Yucca Mountain. However, the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was only in 2002 deemed a suitable location. Congress and President George W. Bush directed DOE to submit its license application.
The NRC docketed the application in 2008, but the Obama administration canceled the project in 2009 at the behest of Reid, who led Nevada’s fight against the repository. DOE withdrew the application in 2010, characterizing the project as “unworkable” given opposition within the state and that the department doesn’t hold the proper land and water rights. Republicans have lambasted Obama and his Energy Department for not following the law.
The NRC’s review lasted until 2011, when the agency closed out the program. In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the regulator to resume the license review using previously appropriated funds. The agency has spent about $15 million of Nuclear Waste Fund money on Yucca licensing activities since 2013, and the state of Nevada estimates DOE will need $1.7 billion and NRC $330 million for the licensing activities that remain. The NRC in 2008 requested $37.3 million for high-level waste pre-licensing activities and $8.3 million in 2009.
Talk to Reid, or anyone in Nevada gearing to oppose the license restart, and they’ll tell you Yucca Mountain remains dead. That DOE would face an unwinnable battle in defending the project against some 300 legal contentions, which challenge the site’s disposal concept, groundwater issues, rail access, and transportation impacts on Las Vegas.
Trump’s transition team in December asked the Energy Department for details on the potential for restarting the licensing process with the NRC. Specifically, the team asked what statutory restrictions exist for the restart, and if DOE has a plan in place to resume the proceedings. Meanwhile, House Republicans are awaiting the findings of a Government Accountability Office audit intended to determine what federal financial resources are available for resuming the license review.
But they’re not standing idle. Lawmakers are already wrangling over separate pieces of legislation introduced last week addressing America’s nuclear waste storage plans. Reps. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) introduced one bill (the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act) that would require the government to secure written consent from the host state and affected tribes to move forward with repository plans.
Meanwhile Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) introduced legislation that would prevent DOE from moving forward with a defense waste repository, for which the agency unveiled a plan in December, until the NRC rules on the Yucca Mountain licensing. Finally, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Mike Conaway (R-Texas) introduced legislation focused on the Obama administration’s interim storage solution, which was formulated in response to the Yucca Mountain cancellation. All three bills were referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which in the past has refused to consider nuclear waste bills that don’t address Yucca Mountain.
The Obama administration’s replacement for Yucca involved developing separate storage facilities for commercial and defense waste that focused on interim storage for commercial spent nuclear fuel. DOE last week, after a year of gathering feedback from the public, issued a draft document for its consent-based siting process. If finalized, DOE will use that process, requiring written approval from host states, to site nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities.
The U.S. has accumulated about 75,000 metric tons of commercial nuclear waste, resulting from Congress’ nuclear waste stalemate over Yucca Mountain and alternatives. The waste is housed at nuclear reactor sites in 39 states, represented by 78 senators who will now have the opportunity to vote for their constituencies. Reid, considered the most powerful party leader in the Senate since Lyndon B. Johnson, has been the sole decider in which voting to allow in the upper chamber. Funding hasn’t been considered for Yucca Mountain since 2010.
Various Yucca Mountain supporters sounded off on the topic last week at an industry event in Washington, D.C. The Nuclear Infrastructure Council’s David Blee said the new administration is going to “make Yucca Mountain great again,” while House Energy and Commerce Committee staffer Andy Zach cited a recent vote in his chamber, showing that 80 percent of members support continued NRC work on the Yucca license.
“We’re not afraid to talk about this anymore,” Zach said. “We know what work needs to be done. There are certain ‘Y’ words that aren’t taboo around the Hill anymore.”
Bob Halstead, executive director for the Nevada’s anti-Yucca Mountain Agency for Nuclear Projects, said in response that the repository’s supporters haven’t done any serious thinking regarding the amount of time and money the adjudication process will entail. He said it will be a long, expensive endeavor and ultimately a losing battle. Pro-Yucca supporters like Eric Knox, of AECOM, however, point to the 10 of 17 counties in Nevada that have supported the project in the past.
If DOE is ordered to formulate a license restart plan, it will immediately need to determine the scope, schedule, and cost of such a program. Each of those figures will depend on whether DOE is ordered just to defend against the contentions, finish the project’s design, and develop transportation routes to Yucca Mountain. There is no definitive timeline for how long that work would take.
