House appropriators continued to support Yucca Mountain as the solution to the nation’s high-level waste problem by dolling out over $200 million to the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to move forward with the process to construct a repository there, according to the fiscal year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill released yesterday. The bill would provide $150 million to DOE to “to carry out the purposes of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982,” which designates Yucca Mountain as the site for a repository. Last year, House appropriators included $25 million for Yucca Mountain, six times less than this year, but it did not make it through the omnibus bill passed earlier this year. The new bill also includes $55 million for the NRC to continue the adjudication of DOE’s Yucca Mountain License application. NRC currently has only $11 million dollars left to complete the license review, a number that will barely cover the expenses related to the production of the Safety Evaluation Reports.
The bill also includes language that would prevent any future tampering into the Yucca Mountain adjudicatory process. “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to conduct closure of adjudicatory functions, technical review, or support activities associated with the Yucca Mountain geologic repository license application, or for actions that irrevocably remove the possibility that Yucca Mountain may be a repository option in the future,” the bill said. DOE has deemed Yucca Mountain as an “unworkable” site. The current strategy of the Department is to begin a consolidated storage program for the nation’s high-level waste while a final repository solution is worked out, although legislation is needed to allow this to move forward. DOE’s FY 2015 budget request included language to request this legislation, but it appears the appropriations bill denies this request.
