ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Trump administration is likely in its fiscal 2020 federal budget plan to again propose funding for licensing the radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, nuclear industry representatives said here Tuesday. But whether Congress will appropriate any money remains in question.
“I think the budget request for the next fiscal year will include, as it did previously, money for both DOE and NRC to pursue permanent repository licensing at Yucca Mountain … and a consolidated interim storage program, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Steve Nesbit, president of LMNT Consulting and a longtime executive at Duke Energy, said during a panel discussion at the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management Spent Fuel Management Seminar.
The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission requested funding in both fiscal 2018 and the current fiscal 2019 to resume licensing for the disposal facility after a nearly decade-long freeze. They were rebuffed by Congress both times. The agencies are due next month to roll out their next budget requests, for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Speakers noted reasons for optimism from Congress for supporters of the long-planned repository. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) lost his re-election bid in November, removing one vocal opponent of the project and one political reason for GOP leadership on Capitol Hill to block funding requests. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Senate’s lead appropriator for DOE and the NRC, has also recently spoken in favor of funding both interim storage and permanent disposal of nuclear waste.
However, Nesbit also mentioned reports that freshman Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) received a pledge from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to block the project. While the details of that assurance are not known, it is “kind of an ominous sign in the House of Representatives,” he said.
“I think one of the takeaways from what we’ve been reading, is that it looks like the burden is going to be a little bit more on the Senate side because of the concerns we’ve heard with respect to maybe Nevada securing the House leadership’s commitment not to move forward on Yucca Mountain,” said Katrina McMurrian, executive director of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition.
