The Trump administration is now 0-2 in its efforts to persuade Congress to fund the long-proposed, still-unrealized nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The House and Senate late Monday afternoon released the conference report for the consensus version of the fiscal 2019 “minibus” appropriations bill covering the Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other agencies. The 204-page report for the $44.64 billion legislation makes no reference to Yucca Mountain, or seemingly to radioactive waste management of any sort.
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), in multiple tweets, confirmed that the project was off the table. “Once again, the U.S. House of Representatives has failed in its relentless pursuit to turn #NV into our nation’s nuclear waste dump,” wrote Heller, who has made opposition to Yucca Mountain a cornerstone of his re-election campaign against Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).
Congress in 1987 first designated the Nye County property as the eventual site for disposal of tens of thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. The Obama administration in 2010 defunded the licensing proceeding begun just two years earlier, but the Trump administration has sought to revive the project in its fiscal 2018 and 2019 budget proposals.
For the budget year starting Oct. 1, the White House proposed nearly $170 million for licensing work at DOE and the NRC. The House minibus notched that up to about $270 million while the Senate offered no money for the project. As it did in the 2018 budget process, the Senate appears to have won the day.
Both chambers of Congress are expected to vote on the consensus appropriations bill no later than next week. The White House as of Monday night had not issued a statement of administration policy indicating whether President Donald Trump would sign or veto the legislation.
