An amendment to the House 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill yesterday reduced the funding for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing review of Yucca Mountain by $25 million. The passed amendment lowers the NRC’s allocated funding by $50 million, with $25 million coming from the originally planned $50 million for the Yucca review and another $25 million coming from corporate support. According to Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the freed-up $50 million would then go to activities related to ensuring electrical grid reliability and resiliency. “I believe this additional funding is necessary to ensure an electric grid that is both reliable and resilient now and in the future,” Simpson said as House appropriators cleared the bill yesterday. “This amendment reduces corporate support, administrative activities of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, by $25 million to accelerate the right-sizing process that is already underway. It also reduces funding for Yucca Mountain licensing process from $50 million to $25 million, as we heard in testimony that the NRC only needs $25 million in 2016 to continue work on the Yucca Mountain licensing process.”
NRC Chair Steven Burns said last month at a budget hearing that the NRC would need $25-50 million in 2016 appropriations to restart the Yucca adjudication process, the next step in the licensing review after the completion of the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. The NRC has estimated in the past that the adjudication process could cost an estimated $330 million, although that number is based on a willing applicant defending the license application. There are still over 300 contentions filed by Nevada and other parties challenging the repository that need adjudication before a construction authorization permit could be issued, according to the NRC.
