House Appropriators included $200 million in the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water spending bill to push forward the Yucca Mountain licensing review, according to the bill released yesterday. The bill would appropriate $150 million to the Department of Energy for nuclear waste disposal activities as outlined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and $50 million to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission so it can complete the Yucca Mountain licensing review. Within DOE’s $150 million, $5 million would go toward affected units of local government. DOE had requested $30 million in FY 2016 for integrated waste management system activities while the NRC did not request any money for the Yucca Mountain review. The enacted 2015 budget did not include any funding for Yucca Mountain despite the House including a total of $205 million to jump start the project in its bill.
The bill also rejects the Department’s proposal to reform the NWPA to allow for consolidated interim storage. The Department requested 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 toward 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. “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.