Energy bill includes $580 million for Yucca Mountain

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The energy and water spending bill expected to be approved by the House today includes a $580 million budget for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage project and almost $200 million for other projects in Nevada.

Nevada's members of the House said they would vote against it because of the Yucca Mountain project funding. Yucca Mountain is about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Once approved later today, the conference report will go to the Senate for final consideration. It is expected to be approved by the Senate and after it is it will go to the president to sign it into law.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she will continue to vote against any funding for the Yucca Mountain project "until this nation realizes that this nation's future is not in using nuclear power."

She said she would rather see the "horrendously large" amount of money for Yucca used in renewable tax credit to consumers and business could use solar, geothermal, wind or other renewable energy sources to produce power.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said on the House floor this morning he was glad language creating interim storage at the site called for in the first bill remained out of the final bill. Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev. worked on an amendment in July to block the interim storage language.

Regardless though, he said the $580 million is slated for a "fatally flawed federal boondoggle," and that he will "never give up the fight" against spending money on the project.

Porter said he could not support the bill as long as the Yucca funding remained.

House and Senate negotiators approved the $580 million for the project --an increase of $120 million from the current fiscal year on Nov. 5. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev, one of the negotiators worked the figure down from the $591 requested by the administration and $765 million approved by the House.

The bulk of the money -- $525 million -- will go toward preparing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing application for the federal nuclear waste repository, planned for Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Beyond Yucca Mountain, the bill has roughly $180 million for Nevada projects.

Negotiators included $24.9 million for Enhanced Test Readiness, which includes the Nevada Test Site. This matches the president's request, but the approved langauge also restricts the National Nuclear Security Administration to improve test readiness capability to a 24-month gear up rather the the proposed 18 months.

The Modern Pit Facility program received $10.8 million, but the president wanted $23 million for the program. The Nevada Test Site, located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, though not the front runner, is one of five sites under consideration for the facility, which would build new plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons.