Nevada’s Commission on Nuclear Projects on Tuesday finalized its biennial report to state lawmakers, which outlines an aggressive strategy in contesting potential resumption of licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
The commission was established in 1985 to advise the governor and the Nevada Legislature on radioactive waste disposal activities in the state. Nevada is preparing some 300 legal and technical contentions against the mothballed repository, which appears set to gain new life under the Trump administration.
“Nevada’s licensing team of technical experts and attorneys are preparing extensive contingency plans in anticipation of a restart of NRC’s adjudicatory proceeding. … The coming year will likely present a major new political battlefield for the State of Nevada’s struggle against the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository,” the biennial report reads, citing Trump’s election and the retirement of longtime Yucca opponent Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
The Department of Energy withdrew its Yucca Mountain license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2010, following cancellation orders from the Obama administration.
Specifically, the commission recommended that state lawmakers ensure the Nevada attorney general and Agency for Nuclear Projects have the proper funding needed for the legal battle, though it didn’t designate an exact number. Efforts would include a massive public information campaign in the “likely event that Congress appropriates news funding for Yucca Mountain licensing.”
The commission described Yucca Mountain as a scientifically and technically unsuitable repository site. The report also cites recent developments that demonstrate the facility is no longer necessary, including joint public-private ventures in consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, along with a 2016 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denial of a request to vacate an NRC rule allowing indefinite storage of nuclear waste at American power plants. That decision, the commission said, shows on-site storage of waste at nuclear plants is a safe option.
