The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in October spent $485 of its remaining balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund, leaving it with $405,992 absent further appropriations from Congress.
As has been the case for most of the year, the agency spent just a few hundred dollars on unspecified program planning and support, according to the its latest report to Congress on the status of the fund.
The nuclear industry regulator in 2008 received the Department of Energy’s application for a license to build and operate a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., for the nation’s high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. After taking office in January 2009, the Obama administration moved quickly to defund the licensing proceeding. It eventually embarked on a short-lived program for siting waste disposal sites that would be contingent upon consent from host states and communities.
A federal appeals court in August 2013 ordered the NRC to resume work on the Energy Department license application, even though the agency was no longer pursuing the Yucca Mountain project. At the time the NRC had nearly $13.6 million from the fund intended to pay for the facility.
Since then, the NRC has spent $13.1 million of its balance, including nearly $8.4 million to finish a safety evaluation report for the licensing and just shy of $1.6 million to prepare a supplement for the environmental impact statement on Yucca Mountain.
That left the regulator with a $432,215 total balance as of Oct. 31, with $26,223 unspent but obligated, largely for contracts for the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses.
The Trump administration has repeatedly asked Congress to provide new funding at DOE and the NRC to resume licensing for the Yucca Mountain project. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have twice rejected the requests, and appear set to do so again in the current fiscal 2020.
