The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March spent $713 of its remaining balance from the federal fund for disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste.
As it has for more than a year, the agency spent the money on unspecified program planning and support, according to the latest Nuclear Waste Fund update to Congress.
That left with NRC with an unobligated balance of $422,071 as of March 31.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is supposed to use its balance from the fund to review the Department of Energy’s 2008 license application for a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Obama administration froze licensing in 2010, but a federal appeals court in August 2013 directed the NRC to proceed with its work on the application.
At the time, the agency had just over $13.5 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund. It has since spent more than $13.1 million of the carryover. The primary expenses have included $8.4 million to complete a safety evaluation report on licensing and $1.6 million for a supplement to the environmental impact statement for the project.
Congress would have to appropriate additional money to enable DOE and the NRC to resume licensing, but rebuffed three requests from the Trump administration to do just that for the 2018 to 2020 federal fiscal years. The White House changed tack for the upcoming fiscal 2021, instead asking for $27.5 million for the Energy Department to develop means for interim storage of radioactive used furl from nuclear power plants in the absence of a permanent disposal site. It remains to be seen whether the House and Senate Appropriations committees will support that request.
