The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May spent just $639 of its remaining balance from the federal fund for development, construction, and operation of a repository for the nation’s nuclear waste.
“While there are no significant actions to report for the month, the NRC provided limited program planning and support activities that resulted in nominal activities,” commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki wrote in a letter attached to the agency’s monthly spending report to Congress.
As of May 31, the NRC had an unspent, uncommitted balance of $409,222 from the Nuclear Waste Fund.
The agency in 2008 received the Department of Energy license application for a disposal site under Yucca Mountain, Nev., for U.S. spent reactor fuel from nuclear power plants and high-level radioactive waste from defense nuclear operations. Its review was cut short two years later when the Obama administration defunded the licensing proceeding.
However, a federal appeals court in August 2013 ordered the NRC to resume its licensing process. At the time, it had just over $13.5 million appropriated by Congress from the Nuclear Waste Fund. Major expenditures since then have included $8.4 million to complete a safety evaluation report for high-level waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, plus $1.6 million to prepare a supplement on the environmental impact statement for the project.
Spending has dropped to a trickle more recently, including $939 in April. For the upcoming fiscal 2020 budget year, the NRC requested $38.5 million to resume licensing for Yucca Mountain. The Energy Department would receive about $110 million to resume its own work on the application. Congress does not appear inclined to support the requests: The House in June approved an appropriations bill that instead offers $47.5 million for non-Yucca integrated management of nuclear waste, focusing on interim storage.
