Reid hopes to cut Yucca budget again

Benjamin Grove

Friday, June 21, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- As Nevada's senators try to derail a vote on Yucca Mountain, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is working behind the scenes to cut the nuclear waste dump project's annual budget.

Congress each year sets the Yucca budget, allocating money from two pots: a federal dump fund that is fed by ratepayers who use nuclear-generated electricity; and Defense Department money. That's because high-level nuclear waste from both commercial nuclear power plants and U.S. Defense wastes -- mostly spent fuel from nuclear submarines -- would be buried at Yucca.

This year, President Bush proposed spending $527 million on Yucca in the 2003 fiscal year. The bulk -- $315 million -- would come from the Defense Department budget.

Reid staffers went to aides for Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and quietly negotiated to slash the $315 million by $100 million, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.

"There are a lot more important priorities in the nation's Defense budget than Yucca Mountain," Hafen said.

Each year Reid uses his influence as the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and his perch on the Senate Appropriations Committee to trim the Yucca budget, ultimately slowing the project and frustrating Yucca advocates. Reid last year played a part in trimming the Yucca budget $70 million to $375 million.

Reid's maneuvering frustrates the Energy Department, which manages Yucca.

"Full funding for Yucca Mountain is important," Energy spokesman Joe Davis said today. "America's national security and environmental protection is enhanced by safely and securely moving nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, rather than having waste stranded at 131 sites in 39 states."

White House officials also want next year's Yucca budget restored.

A budget cut now will only result in delays that increase the project's final pricetag, the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement this week.

"This reduction would have a devastating impact on the Administration's goals of submitting a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2004 so that the repository can open in 2010," the OMB statement said.

The congressional budget process requires that lawmakers first agree to spend money on defense programs by approving a Defense Authorization bill, now under consideration.

Later, lawmakers will hammer out an appropriations bill that sets final project budgets. The process allows for much private and public negotiating, and Reid's trims likley will be at least partially restored as lawmakers debate Defense spending details.

"I'm sure the House people will work to raise (the Yucca budget) back up," Hafen said.

In other action, Senate leaders continued today to parry over when the Senate will vote on Yucca.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he wants the Senate to finish work on the defense authorization bill next week and then debate and vote on the project.

"Maybe I'm dreaming here on this first day of summer to think that we could actually finish (the defense bill) a little early, but I'm hoping for the very best," Lott said on a Senate floor.

But Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he did not expect a Yucca vote before the end of next week, when Congress breaks for a week-long holiday. Daschle said he will not call for a vote, and lamented that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act allows any senator to make a motion to proceed. By Senate tradition, only the leader can do that.

"I can do nothing about the current circumstances," Daschle said. "I would oppose (a motion to proceed) when and if it was offered."

Reid said it was not a "slam dunk" that the Senate would vote to act on Yucca.

"Whenever a Republican decides to bring it up, there will be a vote on the so-called motion to proceed," Reid said. "And I'm hopeful and optimistic that it won't prevail."