Senate approves lower spending on Yucca

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved a drastically lower Yucca Mountain budget than what the House passed and the Energy Department requested, setting up a contentious -- though not unusual -- debate between negotiators from each chamber that will now meet to iron out differences between the bills.

The Senate energy and water spending bill, passed late Tuesday night, includes $425 million for the department's Yucca Mountain project, which aims to store 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

This marks a decrease from the department's $591 million request and the $765 million approved in July by the House.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., voted to pass the bill.

Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said the senator will work to keep the Yucca funding low, but that the House Republicans put the numbers at an "outrageously" high mark.

Reid is the top Democrat on the Senate committee that controls the program's budget. He will also be a member of the negotiations that will determine the project's final number for the next fiscal year.

The White House told the Senate last week that such a funding cut would delay the project and compromise transportation plans. The department still aims to reach its December 2004 deadline to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and open the site by 2010, a spokesman said.

Of its $591 million request, DOE is seeking $161 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account earmarked for spent fuel storage costs compiled with fees paid by ratepayers, and $430 million from the Defense Department, since some of DOD's waste will also be stored at the site.

In the defense authorization bill, which also funds a portion of the Yucca project, the House matched the $430 million request while the Senate only authorized $360 million, a $70 million decrease.

Ensign is also part of the conference committee that will produce the final version of that bill, but negotiations have not started yet.

Jack Finn, Ensign's spokesman, said the Yucca Mountain issue will ultimately be decided in the courts, but that the senator always has his eyes open for any way to affect the project.

In 2003 the Energy Department originally requested $527 million for the program later asked asked for an additional $66 million after Congress approved the site. The House Appropriations Committee rejected the additional funding, but approved $525 million. The Senate, also based on Reid's strong opposition to the program, put the funding at $336 million, approximately $190 million below the administration's request. The Senate later approved Reid's figure in the omnibus bill, but the conference approved the $460 million.