The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recorded a net gain of $5,230 to the Nuclear Waste Fund tied to expenses for licensing activities on the suspended Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to an Oct. 26 report to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and other lawmakers.
NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said the net gain resulted from accounting adjustments at the end of fiscal 2016 on Sept. 30, when staff discovered expenses that should not have been charged to the Nuclear Waste Fund. The report was made public Wednesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in August 2013 ordered the agency to resume its review of the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain licensing application, which was stalled at DOE’s request following the Obama administration’s 2011 decision to cancel the project.
For September, the NRC charged $15,630 for loading of licensing support network documents into the agency’s ADAMS online public document library, and $4,091 for other support costs chargeable to NWF funds. However, the NRC was refunded $24,951 for expenses that should not have been charged for developing Yucca’s environmental impact statement supplement, which was published in May, resulting in a net gain of $5,230.
Since the 2013 court order, the NRC through September had spent $12.1 million of NWF funds on Yucca Mountain licensing, with $8.4 million used for the completion of the site safety evaluation report and $1.54 million for the supplement to the Yucca Mountain environmental impact statement.
The Nuclear Waste Fund had $13.5 million in unexpended funds at the time of the court decision, and $1.46 million remained as of Sept. 30, according to the report, which listed total unobligated funding at $1.35 million.