A senior Energy Department official said Tuesday it would be “silly” to attempt to resume licensing proceedings for the canceled Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, given DOE’s insistence that the project is unworkable.
Appearing the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management’s Spent Fuel Seminar in Washington, D.C., DOE used nuclear fuel disposition office Director William Boyle was asked about the Trump transition team querying the department on what it would take to resurrect the mothballed project with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The regulator has spent about $12 million of Nuclear Waste Fund money on Yucca licensing activities since 2013, and the state of Nevada estimates DOE will need $1.7 billion and NRC $330 million for the licensing process that remains.
Boyle said DOE representatives met in July met with officials from the Government Accountably Office, which is conducting an audit on a potential Yucca Mountain restart at the request of House Republicans. He said DOE reaffirmed the current administration’s stance that Yucca Mountain is an unworkable solution, as the department does not own the proper land and water rights
“If you believe that, any work on a restart seems kind of silly,” Boyle said.
In opening Tuesday’s events, the Nuclear Infrastructure Council’s David Blee said he believes the next administration is going to “make Yucca Mountain great again.” Boyle’s appearance followed.
“We have not as a department worked on a restart. Having said that, do people talk about it in the hallways and that sort of thing? You should have been there the day after the election. Yeah, people like to talk about it,” Boyle said, adding that if a court or Congress directs the department to proceed with Yucca Mountain, it will do so.
Following Obama’s decision to cancel the project in 2009, DOE withdrew the Yucca license application in 2010. In 2013, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the department to resume the license review using previously appropriated funds.
