Yucca Mountain Repository

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee on Monday approved a $44.7-billion energy funding bill for fiscal 2019, including extra money for the planned Yucca Mountain radioactive waste disposal repository in Nevada. A full committee markup is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday. The bill report, which provides a more detailed look at proposed funding for […]

The members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday received a proposed package of rules for commercial nuclear power reactors making the transition from operations to decommissioning. “The proposed rule package was signed out by the Office of Executive Director and sent to the Office of the Secretary yesterday, so … the Commission has it,” […]

In a vote more than a decade in the making, the House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would smooth the way for the Department of Energy to build a permanent nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2018 (H.R. 3053), shepherded through […]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) wants to ensure the Department of Energy’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository is judged in the state, according to the latest published missive in a long-running letter-writing campaign. “[W]ill you commit to holding key substantive portions of the Yucca Mountain proceeding […]

The House of Representatives on Wednesday took the final step needed for floor debate today of legislation intended to push forward the long-delayed construction of a radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. In a nearly party-line vote of 224-184-1, with Republican lawmakers almost uniformly in support and all but three voting Democrats in opposition, […]

The House Rules Committee late Tuesday afternoon approved the rules of debate for a policy bill that would make it easier to send radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada for permanent disposal. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2018 is now slated for a floor vote Thursday. Lawmakers proposed 17 amendments to the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the end of March had $464,544 remaining in its available balance from the fund that pays for its licensing activities for the planned Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada, according to the latest update to Congress. The agency spent $42,506 of its Nuclear Waste Fund carryover during the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not set a schedule or a budget for rebuilding a database of documents crucial to the Department of Energy’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository, NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki told Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on May 1. Svinicki was replying to […]

Congressional panels will mark up Department of Energy budget legislation this week, beginning with the House’s first draft of the agency’s 2019 budget Monday evening. The House Appropriations Energy and Water development subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its version of the agency’s 2019 budget Monday at 5:30 p.m. in Washington. Then, on Wednesday, the […]

About a year after it was introduced in the chamber, a bill that would smooth the way to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., will get a vote on the House floor Thursday. Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments (H.R. 3053) cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee last […]

After nearly a year, the full House of Representatives is expected next week to debate and vote on legislation intended to strengthen the federal government’s ability to build a radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments (H.R. 3053) cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee last June […]

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Proponents of advancing disposition of the U.S. stockpile of used nuclear reactor fuel must make their voices heard in Congress, speakers said Tuesday at an industry conference here. The need for advocacy on Capitol Hill was a common refrain during the first day of the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Used Fuel Management Conference […]

The federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has scheduled a June 13 meeting in Idaho to consider key technical issues to be dealt with prior to transport of radioactive waste from around the country for interim storage or permanent disposal. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires the Department of Energy to establish a permanent […]

By John Stang Transporting spent nuclear reactor fuel across the country and through New Mexico topped public concerns during a public event Wednesday on plans for an interim storage facility in the state. That included wondering which routes would be used. “An accident with this material will take decades, if not centuries, to deal with,” said […]

Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who is running for the Senate seat now occupied by Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), this week introduced legislation to turn Yucca Mountain into a non-nuclear economic hub. The text of the measure, which Rosen calls the Jobs, Not Waste Act, had not been published at deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor. In […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sufficient funds in its current budget and proposed spending plan for the next fiscal year to review license applications for two interim spent nuclear fuel storage sites proposed for New Mexico and Texas, NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Wednesday. “We have sufficient resources for two spent […]

The three current members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are scheduled to appear before the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee Wednesday to testify on the agency’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal. The nuclear industry regulator has requested $971 million for the budget year starting Oct. 1. That would be up from the $911 […]

Despite its lack of movement for nearly a year, there remains hope for legislation intended to give a strong push for building a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a senior official with the nuclear industry’s policy organization said this week. Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act […]

WASHINGTON — After the first wave of hearings on the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2019 budget, key House members still want to turn Yucca Mountain in Nevada into a permanent nuclear-waste repository as soon as possible, while key senators continue to hedge their bets. On Thursday, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee […]

In a wonkishly detailed descent into the weeds of Yucca Mountain policy, a U.S. congressman on Thursday asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry who is to blame for the continued lack of an Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: a moribund bureaucratic organ for managing the Energy Department’s work on the proposed nuclear waste repository. The […]

Senate appropriators on Wednesday did not forbid the Department of Energy from turning Yucca Mountain in Nevada into a permanent nuclear waste repository, but they also did not promise to give the agency funding for the project in fiscal 2019. As it did last year, the department has requested $120 million for paper and preparatory […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled four public meetings in late April and early May to receive input on the scope of its environmental impact statement for Holtec International’s application for a license to build an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. “At the meeting, the NRC will receive comments […]

The U.S. Energy Department has officially supported keeping millions of documents related to licensing of its planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., in their current home in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s electronic records database. Other parties, though, said this month that more consideration is necessary before a final decision is made. The Licensing […]

The U.S. Energy Department has officially supported keeping millions of documents related to licensing of its planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., in their current home in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s public electronic records database. Other parties, though, said this month more consideration is necessary before a final decision is made. The Licensing […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has awarded the Southwest Research Institute a contract worth as much as $52 million over five years to continue operating the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses. The San Antonio-based research and development organization has managed the center since its inception 31 years ago. Its original mission was to provide […]

The nearly $50 million the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested for fiscal 2019 could be enough to restart the quasi-judicial, and long-moribund, adjudication on licensing Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository, the head of the commission wrote in a letter to Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.). NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki […]

The nearly $50 million the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested for fiscal 2019 could be enough to restart the quasi-judicial, and long-moribund, adjudication on licensing Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository, the head of the commission wrote in a letter to Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.). NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki […]

There was no word Monday on whether three nominees for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission might finally get up-or-down votes on the Senate floor after the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada was blanked on funding for fiscal 2018. There had been chatter on Capitol Hill that zeroing out the underground repository might […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking public comment through June 5 on a request for an update to federal regulations regarding storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel. Ray Lutz, and his California watchdog group Citizens’ Oversight, filed the petition for rulemaking on Title 10, Part 72, of the Code of Regulations in January. His […]

By John Stang It might take up to six months after the approval of the 2019 federal budget for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal facility in Nevada to get back on track, a pair of U.S. House subcommittees were told Tuesday. That is because the regulator’s Yucca team […]