The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April spent just $84 of its remaining balance from the federal fund intended to pay for a radioactive waste repository.
As has been the case each month for more than a year, the agency used the money for unspecified “program planning and support.” The expenditure left it with a Nuclear Waste Fund carryover of $430,084, according to the latest spending report to Congress.
The NRC is the federal adjudicator for the Department of Energy’s 2008 application for a license to build and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., for spent fuel from nuclear power plants and high-level radioactive waste from defense nuclear operations. The Obama administration cut off funding for the proceeding two years later, but a federal appeals court in August 2013 directed the NRC to resume work on the license application.
At the time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a fund carryover exceeding $13.5 million for Yucca Mountain licensing activities. It has since spent more than $13.1 million of that, including nearly $8.4 million to complete a safety evaluation report for licensing and over $1.5 million on a supplement to the environmental impact statement for the project.
The NRC has committed $8,097 for contracts with the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, dropping its unexpended, unobligated balance to $421,987.
It remains unknown when or if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would receive more money from the fund. For three consecutive budgets, the Trump administration asked Congress to appropriate funds to resume licensing Yucca Mountain at the regulator and Energy Department. Lawmakers balked each time, and the White House for the upcoming fiscal 2021 ditched Yucca Mountain in favor of seeking $27.5 million for the Energy Department to work on interim storage of nuclear waste.
The House and Senate Appropriations committees have yet to release their own budget plans for any federal agencies. Fiscal 2021 begins on Oct. 1.
