Politics and Funding Dominate INMM’s Seminar Discussions on Yucca

Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/17/2014

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to complete and release the Safety Evaluation Reports for the Yucca Mountain repository by January 2015, NRC Deputy Director of Operations Michael Weber said this week at the 29th Annual Institute of Nuclear Materials Management’s Spent Fuel Management Seminar. Weber also said that the NRC would release each SER as soon as it is completed, rather than wait for all four to be finalized and released together. “We are picking up where we closed the review, including the use of previous work to support the completion of the SER volumes,” Weber said. “We plan to issue those volumes as they are completed during the next year. We are not going to wait to very end to release them. We are going to release them as we proceed.” To support the work, the NRC staff is assembling the necessary staff members in what’s called the Division of Spent Fuel Alternative Strategy in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, according to Weber. “We have approved a re-alignment for this division back in December, and we are making good progress on re-assembling the team and in resuming the license review. It has started,” he said.

The NRC issued an Order last November setting the path forward on re-starting the Yucca Mountain licensing review in order to comply with the writ of mandamus compelling the Commission to complete the review. A major part of the Order included the completion of the SERs as well as the need for another supplemental environmental impact statement from the Department of Energy concerning groundwater issues.

Political Impasse

The INMM’s seminar also featured talks concerning the political divide in Congress over Yucca Mountain and what that means for the future disposal of spent fuel. The House seems to be deadlocked on Yucca Mountain as the only option for spent fuel disposal while the Senate is looking to a consent-based approach to siting a disposal facility. “There’s a willingness to do other things,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). “The reason you see a Yucca-or-bust mentality is quite frankly because legislation has been passed and laws have been passed, and we look at that and $10 billion or $15 billion that has been spent toward Yucca. When you start to look at it, you got an investment that has been made, and you start to say, golly, why we don’t just go there. All of us are willing to look at sound science in terms of what is a good approach, whether it’s a regional approach or a five region approach.”

The political deadlock does not only apply to Congress; it can apply to the members of the federal government as well. During a talk on the challenges of a Yucca licensing restart, Chris Kouts, former principal deputy director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, pointed to bureaucratic malaise. “Even years are really bad years to do things that are political,” Kouts said. “Even years with presidential elections are even worse.” This type of thinking prevents those in the federal government of moving the issue forward, Kouts said.

Funding As a Factor

If anything were to move on a spent fuel program, funding would need to be ample. Kouts estimated that at the height of the Yucca license review, before it was shuttered, the Department of Energy was expending almost $9 million per day in support of the license review. Currently, the licensing restart is being funded by carryover money the NRC and DOE did not expend before the project was ended. The NRC estimates that it only has $11 million and the SER completion should take up most of that fund.

Congress’ political impasse on the issue carries over to the funding of any used fuel project. The omnibus spending bill for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2014 released this week does not include any additional appropriations for either Yucca Mountain or an interim storage program. Although House lawmakers appropriated $25 million in its bill for Yucca Mountain and the Senate appropriated $60 million to fund a pilot interim nuclear waste storage program, the compromised bill does not include money for either.

The bill does, however, maintain the NRC carryover funding. The legislation includes several significant policy provisions to protect American interests and rein in Administration overreach,” a House Appropriations Committee press release said. “These provisions include a continuation of prior-year funding for Yucca Mountain to maintain its viability for future use and to finish its third safety evaluation report.”