The Department of Energy wants $20 million in fiscal 2021 for operations to lay the groundwork for the eventual consolidation and temporary storage of nuclear waste now dispersed around the nation.
That is the largest slice of the $27.5 million requested for Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, according to the detailed budget justification released late Wednesday.
The request “is dedicated to performing the scoping, planning, and development activities needed to implement an interim storage program enabling near-term consolidation and storage of nuclear waste,” DOE said. It would cover preparation of a program plan for a waste management system; taking steps to identify possible storage locations; preparing initial design concepts; cooperation with federal, state, local, and tribal entities; and other activities.
The remaining $7.5 million would be directed toward oversight of the Nuclear Waste Fund, the federal account that is intended to pay for a permanent geologic repository for tens of thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste from defense nuclear operations and spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. That tranche would pay for “maintaining safety and security and other fiduciary responsibilities for the Yucca Mountain site and continued oversight of the Nuclear Waste Fund.”
The $27.5 million, with congressional approval, would be drawn from the Nuclear Waste Fund.
“Coupled with DOE’s funding for storage, transportation, and disposal R&D, the budget request supports the development of a durable, predictable yet flexible plan that addresses efficiently storing waste temporarily in the near term, followed by permanent disposal,” according to a prepared statement from Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette for testimony today before a House Appropriations subcommittee on his agency’s $35.4 billion funding request. “In doing so the Administration will establish an interagency working group to develop this plan in consultation with States.”
The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as amended in 1987, directs the Department of Energy to build the disposal facility on the federal property about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The agency’s 2008 license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been frozen for a decade, after the Obama administration defunded the proceeding. The Trump administration requested funding to resume licensing in its last three budgets, but was denied each time by Congress. Efforts to fund work on interim storage in the current fiscal 2020 also died on Capitol Hill.
President Donald Trump publicly turned against disposal at Yucca Mountain earlier this month, days before his administration released its new budget plan.
