Yucca Mountain Repository

The fiscal 2018 omnibus spending bill that passed Congress this week provided no funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, but it also did not incorporate language from a Senate appropriations package that some in industry dubbed a “Yucca-mountain position pull.” The House of Representatives passed the $1.3 trillion spending measure Thursday, […]

The U.S. Energy Department is unprepared to build the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and presumptuous for requesting funding for the project, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told Energy Secretary Rick Perry in a congressional hearing this week. Perry took a blast from the dais while testifying Tuesday on his agency’s fiscal 2019 budget plan before the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposed fiscal 2019 budget provides enough funding for staff to review two applications to build facilities for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, commission members assured a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) raised the question during the panel’s oversight hearing on the […]

With budget caps lifted, all major Department of Energy nuclear programs would see substantial year-over-year funding increases for fiscal 2018, if an omnibus spending package unveiled late last night is signed into law. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would take home the biggest increase for the current budget year, which began on Oct. 1. […]

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 repository 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 was reassigned after the […]

The three sitting members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are scheduled to make two appearances on Capitol Hill this week to testify on the agency’s fiscal 2019 budget and other matters. NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki and Commissioners Jeff Baran and Stephen Burns are due to appear this morning at a joint hearing of the […]

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Monday offered an optimistic outlook on the future of the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Whether it’s been in the courts or Congress, we are winning the battle on Yucca, but we’re not there yet,” Fleischmann said in a prerecorded video message to attendees of […]

Nevada businessman and perennial political candidate Danny Tarkanian dropped out of the race for Sen. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) seat Friday, freeing Congress’ chief Yucca Mountain naysayer from fighting a primary challenge as appropriations season heats up. Tarkanian, a Republican who has said he supports turning the Nye County, Nev., site into a nuclear research-and-development hub, […]

The U.S. Senate will continue to reject the Department of Energy’s requests for funding to resume work on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) told Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday. In a tense exchange during a Senate commerce committee hearing on national infrastructure, Heller asked Perry to […]

WASHINGTON — The head House appropriator for the Department of Energy still does not see much hope for any funding for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the 2018 spending bill that could be published Monday. The energy portion of the 2018 omnibus the House and Senate are negotiating behind the scenes “has […]

The U.S. Senate will continue to reject the Department of Energy’s requests for funding to resume work on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) told Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday. In a tense exchange during a Senate commerce committee hearing on national infrastructure, Heller asked Perry to […]

Details about the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal for Cold War nuclear cleanup and civilian nuclear waste programs still were not available at deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, only days before Energy Secretary Rick Perry is due on Capitol Hill to explain his agency’s latest spending plans. The week the White […]

All three sitting members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are scheduled to speak Tuesday on the first day of the agency’s 30th Regulatory Information Conference. Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki will offer the keynote speech to start off the conference Tuesday morning, followed by separate “commissioner plenaries” from Commissioners Jeff Baran and Stephen Burns. While […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has less than $500,000 left in its available balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which pays for the agency’s work on the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada. In its latest update to Congress on activities related to licensing of Yucca Mountain, the NRC said its unobligated Nuclear […]

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) on Monday said he believes 300 members of the House of Representatives would line up behind his bill on advancing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository if it could get a floor vote. In an evening speech on the House floor, Shimkus noted that H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy […]

The House’s top energy appropriator appeared to quash any hope that a fiscal 2018 budget being put together in advance of a March 23 federal-funding deadline would contain any money for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nevada. In the face of that ominous prediction, Yucca booster-in-chief Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) told news outlets […]

Only one of 13 states surveyed recently showed any interest in becoming home to an interim or long-term repository for spent fuel from U.S. commercial nuclear power reactors. The Natural Resources Defense Council sent a survey on nuclear waste issues to government officials in all 48 states in the continental U.S. Thirteen states responded in […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has less than $500,000 left in its available balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which pays for the agency’s work on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. In its latest update to Congress on activities related to licensing of Yucca Mountain, the NRC said its unobligated Nuclear […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) on Monday evening led a group of lawmakers to the floor of the House of Representatives to call for action to address the decades-old impasse in finding a permanent home for the nation’s nuclear waste. Standing before a sign with the title of legislation Shimkus filed last year to advance the […]

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel on Wednesday suggested which options it opposes for re-establishing a massive database of documents on licensing the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, but ended a two-day meeting without recommending a clear path forward. Members of the Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel (LSNARP) now have […]

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel on Wednesday suggested which options it opposes for re-establishing a massive database of documents on licensing the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, but ended a two-day meeting without recommending a clear path forward. The Licensing Support Network (LSN) was shut down in 2011, and nearly […]

Members of an advisory panel to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today will have an opportunity to offer their opinion on the future of a retired database for nearly 3.7 million documents on the agency’s review of the Energy Department license application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Licensing Support Network […]

There is no need to rebuild the database of documents for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to the lobbying body for the nuclear industry. The Nuclear Energy Institute earlier this month threw its weight behind keeping the Licensing Support […]

There is no need to rebuild the database of documents for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to the lobbying body for the nuclear industry. The Nuclear Energy Institute earlier this month threw its weight behind keeping the Licensing Support […]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who has pledged to stop the Department of Energy from building a permanent nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in his state, is still preventing the White House from filling a key nuclear regulatory position in the U.S. government, Politico reported last week. President Donald Trump nominated Republican Annie Caputo for a […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested a $970.7 million budget for fiscal 2019, a nearly $60 million spike from the current level largely on the back of proposed funding for licensing of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. If approved by Congress, the nuclear industry regulator’s budget would […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) needs more funding in fiscal 2019 for licensing Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a nuclear waste repository, mostly to put more full-time people on the project, the independent nuclear-waste regulator said in its budget request this week. In a roughly $970-million request for the budget year starting Oct. 1, the […]

The law firm Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch & Lawrence will continue to help Nevada oppose the Department of Energy’s plans to open a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in the state, under a two-year contract worth roughly $5 million. The state Board of Examiners approved the new contract on Tuesday. Nevada has retained the firm […]

The Department of Energy will not release its detailed budget request for fiscal 2019 until sometime within the next two weeks. That is according to a Tuesday message from a Department of Energy (DOE) official reviewed by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The official also said the annual “budget in brief,” a summary that might or […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested a $970.7 million budget for fiscal 2019, a nearly $60 million spike from the current level largely on the back of proposed funding for licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The number of full-time equivalent positions at the nuclear industry regulator, meanwhile, would drop […]