Nevada may get $1 billion of DOE’s budget

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

More than $1 billion could come to Nevada for nuclear weapons research, cleanup and nuclear waste research in 2001 if Congress approves the Department of Energy's proposed $18.9 billion budget.

The DOE has asked for $437.5 million for studies at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where the agency wants to build the world's first high-level nuclear waste repository. But even if Congress approves the full amount, scientists will not finish their studies on the suitability of the site by the 2001 deadline, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said.

Richardson is asking for $325.5 million from the nuclear waste fund, which collects one-tenth of a cent each month on each kilowatt hour sold to nuclear utility customers. The other $77.1 million would come from tax dollars to cover Defense Department radioactive wastes.

"We don't think we have enough funds to complete Yucca Mountain suitability by 2001," Richardson said as he presented the DOE's 2001 budget Monday during a teleconference from Washington. The DOE is working on a plan due at the end of this year to tell people how it will seek a license for the repository that would hold 77,000 tons of highly radioactive commercial and defense waste.

Richardson said the administration is opposed to the latest version of a bill for temporary storage at the mountain.

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, is working to change his temporary storage bill to prevent a presidential veto. The bill switched responsibility for setting radiation standards at Yucca from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for licensing a repository.

"We will strongly oppose Sen. Murkowski's new version of the bill," Richardson said. Under the bill, nuclear wastes could arrive at Yucca by 2007. A repository is not expected to open until 2010 at the earliest.

The DOE also requested $684.2 million for defense programs at the Nevada Test Site.

The budget requested is about $4 million more than this year's funding, said David Marks, assistant manager for budget and financial services at DOE's Nevada Operations Office, a very small increase. "We don't see a major growth pattern in any program," Marks said.

Defense Department programs would receive $218 million. The bulk of that -- $187.9 million -- will continue a series of subcritical experiments of nuclear weapons materials. The experiments are conducted underground and do not utilize nuclear explosions, DOE experts said.

The experiments help scientists ensure the safety of nuclear weapons stockpiled in the U.S. arsenal without actual full-scale underground blasts. There have been no U.S. nuclear tests since 1992.

The DOE expects 5,550 workers at the Test Site in 2001, down 42 employees who will either retire or leave through attrition, Marks said. In the 1970s the Test Site boasted more than 11,000 workers.

The bright spot is $90.2 million budgeted for environmental cleanup, said the DOE's Carl Gertz, assistant environmental manager. That's $3 million higher than this year's budget, he said.

Mary Manning covers the environment for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at manning@lasvegassun.com.