Shimkus Previews Yucca Revitalization Plan

House Energy and the Environment Subcommittee Chair John Shimkus (R-Ill.) predicted that with a Republican Senate, funding for Yucca Mountain should return in the next appropriations bill, he said yesterday in a briefing with reporters. Shimkus has long been a vocal advocate of Yucca Mountain as the solution to the nation’s spent nuclear fuel problem, and during the briefing, he previewed how Yucca-supporters anticipate bringing the project back on-line. “We have every expectation that we have a better chance of moving [funding] through now that we have a Republican Senate,” Shimkus said. “One of the biggest bipartisan votes of the last couple Congresses is continued support for Yucca Mountain, and we have every expectation that will be the House position.” Although the Obama Administration shuttered the project in 2010, deeming it “unworkable,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s release of the Volume Three Safety Evaluation Report this past fall said the design at Yucca Mountain meets requirements for post-closure safety.

 

Shimkus also indicated that he is working on an incentives bill that would increase Nevada’s willingness to participate in the project. The bill would include ‘sweeteners’ such as infrastructure improvements in roadways, rail spurs, and land issues, economic development dollars, and research and development funding. “I do believe that we will be successful moving a spending bill, and I think there are some folks in Nevada that understand that they would rather be part of the process, to be able to have a say, than not,” Shimkus said.