The Obama Administration threatened to veto the House 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill should it include funding to jump start the Yucca Mountain license review, among other reasons, according to a Statement of Administration Policy issued yesterday. President Barrack Obama shuttered the Yucca Mountain project in 2010 after the Department of Energy deemed the site “unworkable,” but pro-Yucca supporters have gained momentum in the past year. “The Administration objects to the funding provided in the bill for Yucca Mountain and is disappointed with the rejection of the practical solutions proposed in the President’s nuclear waste strategy,” the policy statement said. “As reflected in the FY 2016 Budget request, this strategy incorporates important and workable elements, such as consent-based siting, interim storage of waste, and program funding reforms that are essential to the success of a Nuclear Waste Program.”
While DOE requested a reform that would enable it to implement its preferred waste management strategy, House appropriators rejected the proposal for ignoring Yucca Mountain. Its bill report specifically rejected the Department’s proposal to reform the Nuclear Waste Policy Act so as to allow interim storage. The bill provides $150 million to the Department of Energy for nuclear waste disposal activities as outlined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and $25 million to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission so it can complete the Yucca Mountain licensing review.
