Biggest Yucca obstacle may be budget

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, July 26, 2004 | 10:58 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- While a court battle threatens to derail the Energy Department's plans to ship nuclear waste to Nevada, the department could see the Yucca Mountain project delayed by a budget crunch.

Nevada officials have placed their hopes to kill the project on the courts, which issued a favorable ruling earlier this month, but so far the budget could be the key.

Congress began its monthlong summer break Friday without passing the budget for Yucca Mountain project.

Without requested increases to work on the project next year, the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have said they will have a hard time meeting the project's self-imposed deadlines.

The department says it must submit its license application for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, in December, but will need money from Congress to keep the project on schedule.

It also may need new scientific guidelines, after a federal appeals court struck down Environmental Protection Administration standards that say the repository must keep radiation from the environment for 10,000. The court said the EPA did not follow National Academy of Sciences recommendations, which were for a much longer period of time.

The Energy Department is expected to appeal that ruling in court, and work will continue during any appeals, but the department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission still faces the immediate problem of a lack of money for Yucca Mountain work.

Congress has little time when it comes back from recess before the November election. If it does not pass the 13 spending bills individually, all of the outstanding spending bills could be rolled into one large one, called an omnibus, or Congress could pass a continuing budget resolution, leaving the agencies to work at this year's budget levels until next year.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Nils Diaz told Congress last month that a continuing resolution "would delay the NRC's review of the Department of Energy's high-level waste repository application," according to a letter to the Senate made public Wednesday.

The commission requested $69.1 million to work on the license application next year, a $36 million increase from this year. Diaz said keeping the funding level at just over half its request "would disrupt our preparation to review the DOE application and delay our review of that application, once submitted."

Planned tests for containers used to ship the spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain would also be put on hold, Diaz said.

For the department's budget, the House has passed only $131 million for the project, despite the department's $880 million request. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that would permanently change the way Congress puts money toward the program, allowing Yucca Mountain money to come directly from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which is funded by a surcharge on nuclear power, without having to compete with other federal programs. But even supporters of the bill say it is unlikely to go through the Senate.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has told Congress that the license application deadline would be "at risk" if the budget stayed at $131 million.

The Senate has not come up with a budget number yet. The Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee plans to hold meetings when Congress returns in the fall, but what will happen yet is not clear, according to the committee.

In the Senate, the department will run into Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has led the delegation's fight to cut funding for Yucca Mountain.

The Energy Department will not speculate about what it can accomplish at the $577 million level it would likely receive under a continuing resolution, the same amount received this year, and it is hard for anyone to predict what level would be approved in an omnibus spending bill.

"We are early in the budget process," department spokesman Joe Davis said. "We are watching the process very closely and will make decisions accordingly."

Congress passed the 1987 law that singled out Yucca Mountain to be the only site to be study for the nuclear waste repository in an omnibus bill, which can serve as a catch-all for various projects and other legislation.

David Cherry, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said in Washington spending money creates the impression that things are moving ahead.

"If the money wasn't there, many people would say, 'Wait a minute,' and the project is less likely to move forward," he said.

Cherry said by providing less money, Congress is sending a signal that there's some reluctance toward the project.