U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) will remain in a leadership role on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where last year he began a concerted push for a policy bill to advance the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository toward realization.
With the Democrats taking control of the House in the November midterm elections, though, Shimkus drops from chairman to ranking member of the panel that has been rebranded from the Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee to the environment and climate change subcommittee.
The subcommittee’s new chairman will be Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), who previously served as ranking member.
The top Republican and Democrat on the full committee have also swapped roles, with Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) becoming chairman and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) serving as ranking member. The new vice chair is Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.).
Among other responsibilities, the House Energy and Commerce Committee provides legislative oversight of the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission — respectively the applicant and adjudicator for a license to build a nuclear waste repository on federal land in Nevada.
The program has been moribund for the better part of a decade after the Obama administration defunded licensing in 2010. Shimkus hoped to give the process some momentum in 2017 the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act, which contained a set of measures to strengthen the federal government’s capacity to build Yucca Mountain while also advancing shorter-term, centralized storage for the waste. The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 49-4 in favor of the bill that month, and the full House voted 340-72 last May to send it to the Senate. The Shimkus bill never got a hearing in the Senate before the most recent Congress officially ended on Jan. 3.
Shimkus’ office this week did not respond to a query regarding his decision to remain on the committee or whether he intends to file any new form of nuclear waste legislation in the new legislative session.
Separately, the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday confirmed that Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) would remain on the energy and water development subcommittee as ranking member. Simpson previously chaired the panel that writes the House’s first funding bill for DOE and the NRC. The current chair is Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).
Two bills on disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) in Michigan landfills are scheduled to take effect on March 28.
Then-Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed the bills on Dec. 28, four days before the end of his second and final term in office. He was succeeded on Jan. 1 by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).
Sen. Tom Casperson’s (R) SB 1196 establishes direct caps for landfill disposal of TENORM: a radium-226 concentration exceeding 50 picocuries per gram; a radium-228 concentration exceeding 50 picocuries per gram; or a lead-210 concentration exceeding 260 picocuries per gram. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is authorized to amend a landfill operating license to increase the limit to 500 picocuries per gram of each radionuclide, but that requires the site to establish a radiation safety program and make other concessions.
The new law codifies DEQ guidelines dating to 1999 on waste with radium, department spokeswoman Chelsea Lewis said Tuesday. It also sets the upper limit on lead-210 waste.
Accompanying legislation from Sen. Rebekah Warren (D) established a $5 per ton fee for TENORM accepted by landfills. The money will pay for state regulation and oversight of TENORM disposal, monitoring gear for local municipalities and landfills, and refunds to generators.
The state agency is “updating the existing TENORM disposal guidelines to ensure they either reflect, or do not unnecessarily restate, what is now in Michigan law,” Lewis said by email. “In addition, DEQ is taking steps to educate all landfills on the new laws and what is required to be compliant if they accept TENORM for disposal. The new laws require a landfill accepting TENORM waste to incorporate specific radiation protection and environmental monitoring requirements into its operating license. As part of its regulatory function, DEQ will continue to inspect each licensed landfill to ensure compliance with the law and its permit requirements.”
TENORM is naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) with a higher radionuclide concentration due to human activity. It encompasses mineral scales, sludges and sediments, and other wastes that can be generated via hydraulic fracturing for extraction of oil and gas.
While fracking has been widespread in Michigan, there has not been any for close to 18 months, Lewis said. Transport of out-of-state TENORM for disposal in Michigan is also largely halted, she added.
“TENORM can result as a normal by-product of normal oil and gas drilling operations,” she stated. “Whether the waste is generated through fracking has little or no bearing on its TENORM content.”
At least three sites in Michigan accept TENORM for disposal: two landfills and a disposal site operated by US Ecology. In total, roughly 50,000 cubic yards of TENORM-containing waste was disposed of in Michigan last year, largely contaminated soil from a hazardous waste landfill, according to Lewis. There was also material from oil and gas production and water treatment plants.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November spent just $901 of its remaining balance from the fund intended to pay for a permanent repository for radioactive waste.
That left the agency with $414,118 in unobligated balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, according to the latest expenditure report to Congress.
Of the November spending, $379 was for federal court litigation. That was a steep drop from prior months: $14,325 in October, $11,645 in September, and $1,448 in August. The NRC through the fall had contested a petition filed by Nevada in federal court seeking to have Commissioner David Wright barred from participating in any decision on the planned Yucca Mountain repository in the state.
Nevada said Wright had demonstrated a clear bias in favor of the project prior to joining the commission last year. Wright denied that assertion, saying his prior actions and statements indicated only a desire to resolve the longstanding impasse on finding a final resting place for nuclear waste now spread across the nation. He declined Nevada’s request to voluntarily recuse himself from the matter, which led to the federal filing in October. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 28 ruled against Nevada, indicating the state had jumped the gun because Wright might never rule on Yucca Mountain.
The NRC in 2008 received the license application from the Department of Energy, but the Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later. The Trump administration has sought new funding to resume licensing, but Congress has so far rejected its requests.
The NRC had just over $13.5 million in its Nuclear Waste Fund balance in August 2013, when the D.C. Circuit ordered it to resume Yucca Mountain licensing activities. It has since spent over $13.1 million, with nearly $8.4 million used to prepare a safety evaluation report for DOE’s construction application.
The remaining November spending encompassed $522 for program planning and support.
The total NRC unspent balance is $444,039, with $29,921 obligated “primarily on contracts with the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses and on contracts related to the [Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel] virtual meeting,” according to the spending update, posted Friday to the NRC website.
From The Wires
From S&P Global: Some nuclear industry representatives wonder whether the time has come to look for an alternative to the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository.
