Any funding for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel would need to be tied to Yucca Mountain, House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said yesterday at the 2016 Energy and Water bill markup. The House Energy and Water bill included a total of $200 million that would go toward Yucca Mountain in 2016, but it did not include any funding for interim storage. “It depends on what the Senate does and what is negotiated out between the House and Senate on that,” Simpson said on interim storage funding. “They would like to do obviously interim storage. I think interim storage needs to be done too, but not at the expense of Yucca Mountain.” Simpson has said in the past that he would support interim storage so long as Yucca Mountain is still in use. “If we can do both, I’m all for it, and I think our authorizing committees would be too,” he said. “Our authorizing committee, though, is not going to go for not putting any funding for Yucca Mountain and just starting interim storage, when the law of the land is Yucca Mountain.”