Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
2/13/2015
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz would not commit to defending the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain license application in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s adjudication process after being grilled by House lawmakers at a hearing this week. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), one of the House’s major Yucca proponents, pushed Moniz on DOE’s willingness to defend its application during the license review, as some feel is required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Moniz said DOE does not believe it is required to participate in the licensing process. He also pointed to major problems still existing with Yucca Mountain in the land and water rights ownership. “I must point out that the NRC also pointed out that we do not have the authorities in terms of the land and water for Yucca Mountain, which goes right back to the consent-based process,” Moniz said in a hearing in a House Energy and Commerce Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing. He added, “I will have to check with the exact aspects of the law on that. I know that DOE was required to submit the application.”
Shimkus hammered the Department for its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, which is seeking funds to implement a pilot interim storage facility. Shimkus alleged that DOE is skirting its responsibilities under the NWPA, which designates Yucca Mountain as the only resting place for commercial high-level waste. In its request, DOE outlined an interim storage program that would cost $5.7 billion over the first ten years. “The Administration needs to appreciate that there is a change occurring in the state of Nevada,” Shimkus said. “The NRC has finished its Safety Evaluation Report that said that Yucca when closed would be safe for a million years. So, we are in a new world than we were before, and just for public record, $3 billion or $5.7 billion could be very helpful in the state of Nevada transitioning to restarting and reopening Yucca Mountain and also a pilot interim storage site.”
To begin construction of an interim storage site, DOE would need legislative approval to provide funding allowing it to move forward with the project. The Department also included in its request language that would enable it to restructure the current nuclear waste management funding arrangement so as to enable funds from the Nuclear Waste Fund to go towards activities outside of Yucca Mountain. DOE first proposed such an approach in last year’s budget request, but the language did not make into the final FY 2015 appropriations bill. A consent-based pilot consolidated storage facility is the preferred strategy of the Department of Energy to satisfy the nation’s spent fuel disposal needs.
DOE Strategy Doesn’t Change with New Congress
Despite the pressure from of lawmakers on Yucca Mountain, Moniz emphasized that the Department’s strategy has not changed in the new Congress, which includes Republican control of both houses. DOE still intends on moving forward with a pilot interim storage facility, he said. “We remained convinced that moving in this direction of getting a storage facility out there functioning, move fuel away from reactors would be a very, very good first step,” Moniz said during a hearing in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week. “Even as we, in parallel, work to develop the geological isolation capability that we will absolutely need for the long-term.”
Moniz also maintained that Yucca Mountain was an unworkable project, despite the safety findings the NRC released in the SER last month. “Our position and our approach is no different with this Congress than it was with the last one,” Moniz said to reporters after the Senate hearing. “Yucca Mountain, I’ll make it very clear, we continue to say it’s not workable. You don’t have a consent based process. It’s not workable. The NRC fundamentally reinforced that point. When they did the last volumes, they pointed out after all these years and attempts by the Department of Energy, we have neither the land or the water rights we need to operate. That’s an example of what happens when you don’t have a consent based process.”
While some have argued the land and water rights problem outlined by the NRC are minor issues that can be easily fixed, Moniz said that there is no quick fix to them. “What makes it unworkable in the end is that it is not based on a consent based process,” Moniz said. “This is a manifestation of that. You may call it minor if Congress can do it. The fact is the Department of Energy asked for legislation in 2007, and didn’t get it. So, that’s hardly minor.”
