Returning to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Congress will have less than a month to reach an agreement on fiscal 2017 spending, raising uncertainty for some notable nuclear waste programs.
Lawmakers will need to pass new budget bills by Sept. 30 or reach an agreement on a continuing resolution that will serve as stopgap funding for the upcoming fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Congress has the ability to pass a three- or six-month continuing resolution, allowing current funding levels to run through the Obama administration’s term.
Agencies function at the funding level of the previous fiscal year with the passage of a clean continuing resolution. The Department of Energy for fiscal 2017 has requested $76.3 million for its Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS), including $39.4 million in new funding for its consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage. That initiative is the Obama administration’s alternative to canceled plans for a nuclear waste geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. DOE’s fiscal 2016 enacted funding includes significantly less for IWMS, at $22.5 million.
DOE directed budget questions to Office of Management and Budget officials, who only discussed the stalled appropriations process in general terms.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s fiscal 2017 budget request represents a 2 percent decrease from current funding levels, from $990 million to $970.2 million. The agency has requested $1.4 million to review Waste Control Specialists’ application to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for nuclear waste in West Texas.
NRC spokeswoman Maureen Conley said by email that any impact from a continuing resolution “really depends on the details.” The agency has flexibility in prioritizing its workload, but she said the NRC won’t have 100 percent certainty on any programs until the funding profile is known.
