The 2016 Democratic Party Platform does not address America’s commercial nuclear waste storage problem.
The 51-page document was released last week, ahead of this week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where Hillary Clinton will officially become the party’s presidential candidate. Though Republicans in their own 2016 platform vowed to end the Obama administration’s “disregard of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act,” Democrats did not broach the subject.
Obama in 2011 canceled plans for a national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, eventually opting instead for a consent-based siting initiative for nuclear waste storage. Those plans call for operation of a pilot storage facility by 2021; one or more larger, interim facilities by 2025; and at least one permanent geologic repository by 2048.
The Senate’s fiscal 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, approved this spring, provides $61 million to fund the DOE consent-based siting effort. The House’s version, which failed to pass, rejects appropriations for consent-based siting, while requesting $170 million to carry out Yucca Mountain licensing activities.
