Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003 | 11:31 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Senate and House negotiators agreed to give the Yucca Mountain dump $580 million next year, an increase of $120 million from the current fiscal year.
The bulk of the money -- $525 million -- will go toward preparing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing application for the repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The compromise came after widely varying requests and lengthy negotiations between the House and Senate.
The House passed a plan that included $765 million, with proponents saying that more money was needed to make up for past funding cuts.
The Senate passed a budget with $425 million set aside for the project.
President Bush's budget asked for $591 million.
"When we are finished, we have a number that the experts ... will say will keep the program right on schedule and fund the program as required," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee chairman.
Negotiators still had some final technical questions on the bill and it was expected to be out of committee later today. It was unclear when it would get final passage and go to the president.
House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, named Yucca Mountain his top priority for funding in the bill's early stages.
After the compromise passed, Hobson said, "DOE said they could live with $580 (million) so that's what they got."
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. said today that "getting (Hobson) below the figure the president asked for was not easy."
Reid is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that creates the Yucca Mountain budget each year and a member of the conference committee. He annually cuts the Yucca budget.
He said today that the high level in the House bill took away from other programs the president requested: "It was a hard-fought compromise."
The administration -- and the nuclear industry -- lobbied hard for $765 million saying anything less would slow down the program since it is never fully funded to the president's request.
The Energy Department and the Nuclear Energy Institute did not have comment on the bill this morning.
Reid said he "cut almost $200 million from what was a record high budget request, even though the House Republican leadership and President Bush have made jamming Yucca Mountain through as quickly as possible a top priority."
Reid said at the conference committee meeting today that this is the first time the bill has money dealing specifically with transportation studies on nuclear waste.
He said trying to figure out how to get "the most poisonous substance known to man to Yucca Mountain" safely would eventually stop the project.
Domenici said early on the Yucca budget would be a "major point of contention" as the bill moved through Congress.
"The House wanted to move much more rapidly than the Senate on Yucca," Domenici said, adding he though it was a "pretty fair compromise."
Reid said he did not think DOE could spend all the money allocated.
"It's pure gluttony," he said.
He said during the meeting that the department "has done a poor job" running the Yucca Mountain project, which has created "a lot of mistrust" for the agency in Nevada.
"Yucca Mountain will never come to be," Reid said.
In 2003 the Energy Department requested $527 million for the program and later asked for an additional $66 million after Congress approved the site. The House Appropriations Committee approved $525 million. The Senate put the funding at $336 million and a conference committee came to a compromise of $460 million.
Language singling out transportation routes for the nuclear waste shipment to not go through Las Vegas was removed.
The Yucca funding comes on the heels of two Illinois lawmakers' efforts to change the Yucca Mountain funding formulas.
Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., circulated a "dear colleague" letter to other lawmakers Monday listing how much states with nuclear power plant have paid into the Nuclear Waste fund, a federally created fund that collects money made for the project.
Nevada does not have any nuclear power plants.
They introduced a bill last week to avoid the annual battle for funds within the appropriations bill.
"The project has a long history of funding cuts driven in part because the program must compete for scarce discretionary spending resources despite its unique income source," the lawmakers wrote. "Over the last 10 years, appropriations have been cut by more than $700 million below budget requests, and by $134 million in (fiscal year) 2003 alone."
The industry argues that utilities -- and ratepayers -- have put in about $20 billion into the fund since its creation in 1983 to help finance a permanent place for nuclear waste, but close to $14 billion still sits in the account waiting to be spent on the project.
If their bill gets approved, Yucca would be guaranteed at least $725 million from the fund. Anything over that would be approved by Congress. The guaranteed money would not pit it against other programs for funding.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is composing her own letter to send to her fellow lawmakers against the legislation. An aide said she wants to be sure they hear both sides of the story.
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