House lawmakers are trying to tie any progress on interim storage to the completion of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Yucca Mountain license review, according to the draft language of a planned bill obtained by E&E News yesterday. The bill, entitled the “Nuclear Waste Policy Act Amendment of 2015,” would enable the Department of Energy to construct or contract out the consolidation of spent fuel to an interim storage facility, so long as the NRC makes a final decision on the suitability of Yucca Mountain. “Before DOE enters into a contract with a non-Federal entity for interim storage, or the NRC license a DOE-owned interim storage facility, NRC must reach a final decision on (i.e., approve or disapprove) the Yucca Mountain license application,” the draft bill said. The draft bill also includes: provisions that the land and water rights issues for Yucca Mountain would go to DOE, but only if the NRC gives the go ahead; direction for DOE to take title of the waste once it is accepted for transport to an interim storage facility; and increases in benefits for host communities willing to site a repository or interim storage facility.
House lawmakers have led the push to re-start the shuttered Yucca Mountain project. The House Energy and Water Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2016, which passed last month, included $175 million reserved for Yucca Mountain, of which $150 million would go to the Department of Energy and $25 million to the NRC. On the Senate side, Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has voiced his support for Yucca Mountain, and has said that in conjunction with interim storage, funding for the project could make the Senate’s final appropriations legislation for next year. However, no funding for Yucca Mountain was included in the Senate version of the bill, which still needs a floor vote.
