Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Yucca backers lobby Congress on funds

WASHINGTON -- Yucca Mountain supporters canvassed Capitol Hill Tuesday urging lawmakers to support the $765 million slated to go toward the project, saying anything less will wind up costing everyone more money.

The coalition's push does not sit well with Nevada's congressional delegation.

"The proponents of dumping nuclear waste in Nevada don't care how much money is wasted or how many lives could be at risk from shipments of radioactive garbage to Yucca Mountain," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. said in a statement. "It would be a mistake to remove Yucca Mountain from the budget process and would do little or nothing to encourage close scrutiny of how these funds are being spent."

Based on the strong support of House Appropriations Energy Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, for the project, the House approved $765 million for Yucca Mountain. The intention is to store 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Senate energy and water spending bill, passed earlier this month, includes $425 million for the project, which marks a decrease from the department's $591 million request. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is the top Democrat on the committee that crafted the bill, recommended the lower funding and will continue to push for it in conference. Reid, like the other Nevada lawmakers, strongly opposes the site.

The Energy Department estimates the project experienced a $781 million shortfall over the past 10 years due to appropriations cuts, according to industry group the Nuclear Energy Institute.

During conference negotiations, selected members of both chambers will meet to iron out the differences between various projects in the bill.

"We send the biggest and strongest over there to the Senate-- because that's the heaviest lifting," said LeRoy Koppendrayer, Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition chairman. He and other Yucca supporters want to make sure the higher figure stays in place to keep the project moving forward.

This includes language in the House bill that sends $70 million for waste transportation planning, including initial work on a Nevada rail spur; and $30 million for Nevada to blunt the social, economic and environmental effects of constructing a national nuclear waste dump in the state.

"No matter which transportation route-- is picked, it is going to be challenged," Koppendrayer said "So pick one and let the show begin."

Bruce Josten, U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive vice president of government affairs, said the funding cut would also delay the overall development of transportation routes.

Energy Department officials have repeatedly said any cut in the funding could cause the department to miss its December 2004 deadline for submission of a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Koppendrayer said that would mean the DOE would miss its target to open in 2010, leaving waste sitting at the nuclear power plants. It would cost more money to add more onsite storage, he said, adding many utilities did not anticipate having to add more spent fuel storage since the Energy Department was supposed to take the waste in 1998.

"Our own analysis indicates that delaying repository operations five years to 2015 would cost $4 billion or more in additional interim used fuel storage costs," said Terry Freese, the Nuclear Energy Institute's director of legislative programs.

The current fiscal year ends today, but Congress has approved a continuing resolution that keeps the budget working until it can approve new figures.

Freese said the program would still be on track based on a continuing resolution through the end of October but "a repeat of last year could affect the application."

Congress did not pass the current year's budget until February, four months late.

Meanwhile, the group also wants Congress to support legislation that would redefine the contributions to the Nuclear Waste Fund. Since 1983 nuclear ratepayers have contributed roughly $20 billion to the fund, which is supposed to fund the project. Congress then allocates the money annually, allotments that are routinely cut in the Senate.

In the past, the Energy Department has sought to have access to the money without a congressional vote, but those moves to get the Yucca Mountain Project "off budget" have repeatedly failed.

This year the Energy Department in February to at least make it easier to restore money that may be cut in the budgeting process. However, that proposal has been ignored.

Now the Nuclear Energy Institute is trying to come up with other options to make the fund more accessible, Freese said.

"The program has to remain under government oversight," Freese said.

He was optimistic a proposal could be introduced before the end of the session, but could not give specifics as to which member might offer the language or details on what it would include.

Berkley objects to any version of this idea, saying the government must "scrutinize every dime."

"Those seekng to increase funding for Yucca Mountain should have to compete with the real infrastructure needs of the nation contained in the energy and water spending bill."

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