DOE lacks funds for Test Site nuke storage

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

If Congress next year approves temporarily storing nuclear waste in Nevada, the Department of Energy won't have funds for developing a storage facility at the Test Site.

The DOE had $85 million of taxpayers' money tucked away in the Defense Department fund to pay for temporary high-level nuclear waste storage near Yucca Mountain, the nation's only site under study as a permanent radioactive waste dump.

The money, which was dedicated for temporary storage, was the Defense Department's share earmarked for nuclear weapons waste.

But during this year's prolonged budget negotiations, $75 million of the funds were stripped from the DOE's budget, leaving $10 million for completing a site recommendation report next year.

Congressional staffers credit Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the second most powerful Democratic senator, for removing the bulk of the funds.

Congress first attempted to approve a plan to ship thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste to Nevada for temporary storage in 1996. The money was set aside in one of two funds, but never spent, because President Clinton vetoed any temporary storage bill that managed to pass.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who was not in Congress at the time the original legislation was passed, said the remaining funds should go for transmutation, the process that converts deadly nuclear wastes into less harmful materials, or for recycling research, "either of which benefit the environment and the health of Nevada citizens."

The $85 million was contingent on Congress passing a temporary storage bill, said Michael O'Donovan, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who opposed the funding.

Instead of having the money ready to construct the temporary facility, Congress must appropriate it again, giving Nevada's congressional members another area to fight the project. Without the money sitting in the fund, the process will be further delayed even if Congress gives the OK.

Transmutation did receive $4 million, given to UNLV for further research. Reid secured the funding in the Senate while Berkley protected the funding in the House.

The DOE has been under pressure from nuclear utilities to remove spent nuclear fuel from reactor sites.

Nuclear power plants have generated more than 40,000 tons of waste, most of it sitting in storage pools near nuclear power reactors at 76 sites in 34 states.

In addition to the 2,000 tons of waste generated each year by utilities, 100,000 gallons of nuclear waste from defense activities are stored in Idaho, Washington and South Carolina.

The DOE missed a 1998 deadline to take nuclear wastes off power plant sites, resulting in 13 lawsuits. A recent federal appeals court ruling allows the utilities to sue the DOE.

Although the DOE still has not completed studies for a permanent nuclear waste tomb at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the $85 million was set aside so environmental studies at the site could begin immediately if and when Congress approves temporary storage in Nevada.

The money for nuclear waste management is collected in two funds. In order for the money to go to temporary storage, Congress must request it on an annual basis.

The first fund is fed by nuclear power customers, who pay one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt hour on their monthly utility bills. As of this year, $9.1 billion was available from nuclear electricity consumers.

The second fund comes from taxpayer dollars and covers radioactive wastes from Defense Department activities that contractors are cleaning up at hundreds of former nuclear weapons sites across the country. A total of $1.1 billion has accumulated in that fund to date.

The DOE cannot spend these funds without annual congressional approval for studies at Yucca Mountain, the proposed permanent nuclear repository for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, or for temporary nuclear waste storage.

Congress has attempted to send nuclear waste from commercial reactors to either the Nevada Test Site or to a location nearby Yucca Mountain since 1996, although interim storage is against current federal law in a state under study as a permanent waste repository.

For the past five years Nevada's congressional delegation blocked temporary nuclear waste storage, so the $85 million stayed in the defense fund, the DOE's annual reports to Congress said.

Congress has considered how much money to give the DOE each year for its nuclear waste activities. For 2001 the DOE has roughly $351 million for scientific studies at Yucca Mountain.