Yucca Mountain Repository

The state of Texas on Monday objected to Nevada’s attempt to intervene in the lawsuit demanding that the federal government move ahead with 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 reinvigorate a policy […]

Fireworks could fly Wednesday, when three of Nevada’s four U.S. representatives are set to testify before a House energy panel about reviving the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev. The three democratic lawmakers, who all oppose Yucca, will testify during a hearing on the 45-page Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 […]

The Nevada Assembly has advanced a resolution that would, if also passed by the state Senate, codify the state’s long-running opposition to opening the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Assembly Joint Resolution 10 passed 32-6 late Friday. Four lawmakers were absent for the vote. The Nevada Legislature is scheduled to be in session through June […]

An expansive nuclear-waste bill unveiled in the House of Representatives this week would strip away some of Nevada’s legal tools for resisting the moribund Yucca Mountain geologic repository the Donald Trump administration wants to resurrect. Among many other things, the highly nuanced, 45-page Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 would if signed into law curtail […]

An expansive nuclear-waste bill unveiled in the House of Representatives this week would strip away some of Nevada’s legal tools for resisting the moribund Yucca Mountain geologic repository the Donald Trump administration wants to resurrect. Among many other things, the highly nuanced, 45-page Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 would if signed into law curtail […]

House lawmakers late Wednesday unveiled a 45-page bill intended to speed up the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The”discussion draft” of the legislation, which will get a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee on April 26, would among other things give the Energy Department the land-use and water […]

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) continued to pound the pulpit this week in opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in his state, vowing to lead the fight against the Trump administration’s apparent plan to revive the dormant project. “I’m standing between this Republican administration and Yucca, and I will lead this fight,” […]

Legislation designed to help the Energy Department secure a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository could appear as soon as next week, when Congress is set to return to Washington, a source said Monday. The bill would seek to quell regulatory concerns that DOE has not secured permanent land and water […]

Federal agencies and Texas have entered into mediation over the state’s lawsuit demanding that the United States advance a permanent solution to storage of U.S. nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Meanwhile, the state of Nevada, a nuclear industry organization, and several utilities also want a say in the lawsuit, opposing some or all […]

One, and only one, of Nevada’s U.S. senators on Thursday asked the Senate Appropriations Committee not to include any funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the stopgap spending bill Congress must produce this month to keep the federal government funded through September. “As you finalize legislation to continue funding for the Fiscal […]

One, and only one, of Nevada’s U.S. senators on Thursday asked the Senate Appropriations Committee not to include any funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the stopgap spending bill Congress must produce this month to keep the federal government funded through September. “As you finalize legislation to continue funding for the Fiscal […]

Federal agencies and Texas have entered into mediation over the state’s lawsuit demanding that the United States advance a permanent solution to storage of U.S. nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. An initial mediation session occurred on April 4, and a follow-up is scheduled for May 15; in between the parties on May 1 […]

Nevada lawmakers crept closer to approving their latest cry of opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository Monday by advancing a resolution condemning the controversial facility to the floor of the State Assembly. Assembly Joint Resolution No. 10 “protests in the strongest possible terms, any attempt by the United States Congress to resurrect […]

The Nuclear Energy Institute and several utilities have asked a federal court for authorization to intervene on behalf of the targets of the state of Texas’ lawsuit over federal management of nuclear waste. The state last month sued Energy Secretary (and former Texas governor) Rick Perry, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki, Treasury Secretary Steven […]

Waste Control Specialists has filed its last updates with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the company’s license application to build and operate an interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel, CEO Rod Baltzer said Wednesday. That wraps up the Dallas-based company’s responses to the regulator’s request for additional information to the application filed last April, Baltzer […]

In his first site visit as energy secretary, Rick Perry on Monday toured the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site and afterward met with Gov. Brian Sandoval, a fierce opponent of reviving the project. The state and federal governments are gearing up for potential resumption of licensing activities with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the mothballed […]

Two top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday requested that Energy Secretary Rick Perry re-establish the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCWRM), so that the Energy Department will again have an office dedicated solely to nuclear waste policy. Prior to its defunding in fiscal 2011, OCWRM was the DOE entity […]

Two top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday requested that Energy Secretary Rick Perry re-establish the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCWRM), so that the Energy Department will again have an office dedicated solely to nuclear waste policy. Prior to its defunding in fiscal 2011, OCWRM was the DOE entity […]

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt on Monday endorsed a legislative resolution reaffirming the state’s opposition to storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. The resolution was introduced last week in the Nevada Legislature, after the White House released its fiscal 2018 budget proposal, which included $120 million for the Energy Department to […]

Two top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday requested that Energy Secretary Rick Perry re-establish the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCWRM), so that the Energy Department will again have an office dedicated solely to nuclear waste policy. Prior to being defunded in fiscal 2011, OCWRM was the DOE entity charged […]

The deadline for comment on a proposed deep-geological repository for defense-only high-level radioactive waste wraps up today, only days after the Trump administration announced that it wants to restart the licensing process for the combined civil-military Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. The Obama administration wanted to start searching for a Defense Waste Repository site this […]

President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal calls for $120 million to restart licensing activities for the mothballed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, and in the meantime for a “robust” interim storage program. “These investments would accelerate progress on fulfilling the Federal Government’s obligations to address nuclear waste, enhance national security, and reduce […]

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up to date on news affecting Department of Energy […]

President Donald Trump, the Department of Energy, and Congress must take steps to advance the program to find a final resting place for the United States’ massive holdings of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council said Wednesday. “It has been more than 30 years since enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy […]

The Michigan Senate Energy and Technology Committee last week advanced three resolutions calling on the federal government to take action to address the naitonal dilemma posed by high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. “Safe and reliable nuclear energy provides much or our nation’s power and can continue to help us meet our current and […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is preparing legislation aimed at restarting licensing efforts for the mothballed Yucca Mountain repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a staffer confirmed Wednesday. Shimkus spokesman Jordan Haverly said the bill would address controversial land and water rights in Nevada that the Energy Department has said make the project “unworkable.” The legislation, […]

An anti-nuclear activist on Thursday slammed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its handling of a planned interim nuclear waste storage site in West Texas, accusing the agency of collusion with applicant Waste Control Specialists. Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste watchdog at Beyond Nuclear, criticized the regulator for inappropriately supporting the plan, rushing the licensing process, and violating […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is preparing legislation aimed at restarting licensing efforts for the mothballed Yucca Mountain repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a staffer confirmed Wednesday. Shimkus spokesman Jordan Haverly said the bill would address controversial land and water rights in Nevada that the Energy Department has said make the project “unworkable.” The legislation, which […]

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up to date on news affecting Department of Energy […]

The Department of Energy is responsible for the overwhelming majority of the federal government’s environmental liability, which has more than doubled from $212 billion to $447 billion over the last two decades, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday. DOE represents 83 percent of that liability: $372 billion as of fiscal 2016; it is followed distantly […]