Yucca Mountain Repository

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not resumed consideration of the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository, despite media reports to the contrary sparked by a routine notice published in the federal register Wednesday. The notice that appeared Wednesday in the federal government’s official journal is essentially a form […]

GOP leaders of key energy panels in the House urged the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory commission to heed the recommendations in a Government Accountability Office report issued Friday to restart Yucca Mountain. The report, ordered in 2016 by Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), recommended that DOE and NRC move quickly […]

The Donald Trump administration requested $150 million for 2018 across the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart DOE’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a nuclear waste repository. The $120 million of funding within DOE encompasses $110 million for Yucca licensing and $10 million for an interim storage […]

The Department of Energy this week officially canceled its oft-foiled plan to test deep boreholes for storage of nuclear waste, as the Trump administration further formalized its intention to put that waste in Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Due to changes in budget priorities regarding nuclear waste policy, the Department of Energy does not intend to […]

A federal judge on May 19 authorized the state of Nevada and nuclear power industry representatives to intervene in Texas’ lawsuit demanding the federal government move ahead expeditiously with a permanent repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Judge Patrick Higginbotham, of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, did not provide the reasoning for his separate […]

By Wayne Barber The Nuclear Regulatory Commission budget request for fiscal 2018 puts funding back into licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada even as it reflects overall belt tightening and a continuing reduction in employee headcount at the agency. The regulator is requesting $952 million for the budget year that starts Oct. […]

The Donald Trump administration requested $150 million for 2018 across the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart DOE’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a nuclear waste repository. The $120 million of funding within DOE encompasses $110 million for Yucca licensing and $10 million for an interim storage […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), the House of Representatives’ de-facto dean of Yucca Mountain, cheered the White House’s plan to resume work on that planned nuclear waste repository Wednesday, while another congressional Dean, one Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), slammed the proposal as anti-Nevada. The Trump administration’s proposal to spend $120 million on Yucca Mountain and interim […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission budget request for fiscal 2018 puts funding back into licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada even as it reflects overall belt tightening and a continuing reduction in employee headcount. The regulator is requesting $952 million for the budget year that starts Oct. 1, including 3,284 full-time equivalent employees. […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it has canceled a planned test of the use of deep boreholes for storage of U.S. nuclear waste. “Due to changes in budget priorities regarding nuclear waste policy, the Department of Energy does not intend to continue supporting the Deep Borehole Field Test (DBFT) project,” DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes […]

The Donald Trump administration requested $120 million for fiscal 2018 to resume the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a nuclear repository, while also asking for $10 million to begin work on an interim waste-storage program. The request, $120 million in total, would be funded within DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. “This request […]

A federal judge on Friday authorized the state of Nevada and nuclear power industry representatives to intervene in Texas’ lawsuit demanding the federal government move ahead with a permanent repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Judge Patrick Higginbotham, of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, did not provide the reasoning for his separate rulings in […]

By Wayne Barber While he realizes the odds are slim, a state senator from rural Nevada would like to see policymakers seriously consider building an interim nuclear waste storage facility at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), which was long used for nuclear weapons testing. The prevailing political mindset on high-level nuclear waste in Nevada […]

The Nevada Senate this week approved a joint resolution that would make official the state Legislature’s opposition to the Energy Department’s proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository. The measure, Assembly Joint Resolution 10, passed 19-2. The Nevada General Assembly approved the measure by a 32-6 vote in in March, with four lawmakers absent. The resolution now […]

The Nevada Senate this week approved a joint resolution that would make official the state Legislature’s opposition to the Energy Department’s proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository. The measure, Assembly Joint Resolution 10, passed 19-2. The Nevada General Assembly approved the measure by a 32-6 vote in in March, with four lawmakers absent. The resolution now […]

Two Nevada legislative panels on Saturday approved more than $7 million from 2017 to 2019 for the state to fight President Donald Trump’s plan to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev. In a joint session that was webcast, the state’s Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee approved […]

The possibility that U.S. nuclear waste could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb” if not interred at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is not a compelling argument in favor of the always controversial project, experts said after a lawmaker from Texas cited the threat. Republican Rep. Pete Olson late last month at a House Energy […]

Two Nevada legislative panels on Saturday approved more than $7 million from 2017 to 2019 for the state to fight President Donald Trump’s plan to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev. In a joint session that was webcast, the state’s Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee approved […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that further action is not immediately necessary to ensure safe operations of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The finding follows a supplemental inspection that ended this year following three NRC site visits to the nuclear plant. “The NRC determined that programs and processes at PNPS adequately support […]

The possibility that U.S. nuclear waste could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb” if not interred at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is not a compelling argument in favor of the always controversial project, experts said after a lawmaker from Texas cited the threat. Republican Rep. Pete Olson late last month at a House Energy […]

Two Nevada legislative panels on Saturday approved more than $7 million from 2017 to 2019 for the state to fight President Donald Trump’s plan to restart the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev., the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees approved the funding as part of Nevada’s […]

The state of Nevada must have a voice in a lawsuit demanding that the federal government move ahead with plans for a permanent nuclear waste repository in the state, according to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. Texas sued the Department of Energy and other federal agencies in March, seeking to force Washington to promptly obey the […]

The head of the lobbying arm for the nuclear energy industry is urging the Trump administration to halt what she called “misleading budget tactics” by its predecessor related to the Nuclear Waste Fund. The account collected more than $20 billion from nuclear utilities over several decades, with the ultimate intent of paying for a geologic […]

There is no funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada in the omnibus appropriations bill Congress passed this week to keep the Energy Department and the rest of the federal government funded through September. The bill was awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature on Friday afternoon. The Trump administration wants to restart […]

There is no funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada in the omnibus appropriations bill Congress is expected to pass this week to keep the Energy Department and the rest of the federal government funded through September. The Donald Trump administration wants to restart DOE’s application to license Yucca Mountain with […]

The head of the lobbying arm for the nuclear energy industry is urging the Trump administration to halt what she called “misleading budget tactics” by its predecessor related to the Nuclear Waste Fund. A federal appeals court in November 2013 directed that the Department of Energy stop collecting payments into the fund from utilities because […]

The state of Texas on Monday objected to Nevada’s attempt to intervene in the lawsuit demanding that the federal government move ahead with licensing and building the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. “Texas’s Petition seeks equitable remedies for decades of federal inaction on growing, above-ground stockpiles of nuclear waste. By contrast, Nevada’s intervention seeks to […]

Editor’s note: This is the final installment in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. In his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump has moved from an ambiguous stance on Yucca Mountain to an impending showdown with Nevada over the seemingly imminent resumption […]

The Trump administration appeared to harden its resolve to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository over host state Nevada’s objections this week, even as word leaked that a site contractor was marshalling its workforce to restart the project and a House panel held a hearing on new pro-Yucca legislation. On Wednesday, after the hearing […]

WASHINGTON — AREVA Federal Services is preparing for the Energy Department to formally announce plans to restart the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada “in the coming weeks,” according to an undated, internal company document. Weapons Complex Morning Briefing obtained a copy of the document, which an AREVA spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed was a page from […]