NRC Would Need $25-30 Million to Start Yucca Adjudication, Chair Says

To start the Yucca Mountain adjudication process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would need $25-30 million in Fiscal Year 2016 appropriations, NRC Chair Steven Burns said yesterday during a hearing in front of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. The NRC currently has about $4 million in Nuclear Waste Fund appropriations that will most likely be expended by completing the Yucca Mountain Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, leaving the adjudication process unfunded.

 

The NRC did not request additional Nuclear Waste Fund appropriations in its Fiscal Year budget request. “My understanding is that I think somewhere in the order of $25 to 30 million might be the amount that would cover agency activities reflecting the resumption of the adjudication for the Fiscal Year 2016,” Burns said. “Again, I think that’s if you have, from my perspective, a willing applicant, because the significant step you are now in is an adjudication, which in normal terms, you expect an advocate for the application like you would in other type of licensing proceedings. Again, the NRC’s role is the licensing authority and the oversight authority of the application.” The NRC has estimated in the past that the adjudication process could cost an estimated $330 million, although that number is based on a willing applicant defending the license application.