Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved an extra $5.5 million for the Energy Department to decide how to recycle nuclear waste in hopes of cutting down the amount of high-level waste that would eventually wind up in Nevada if the Yucca Mountain repository opens.
The extra money comes as part of a two-pronged effort to deal with nuclear waste while the Energy Department battles delays in building the proposed dump at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Through the Spent Fuel Recycling Initiative, Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, who heads the House Appropriation subcommittee that writes the bill, wants to see used fuel possibly moved to existing department facilities in Washington, Idaho or South Carolina, until Yucca opens. He also wants the government to move forward on plans to reduce the amount of waste now and in the future.
The House Appropriations Committee approved the $29.7 billion bill that includes $24.6 billion for the Energy Department, of which $661 million is for the Yucca Mountain project.
The bill also includes $75.5 million for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, a research program designed to find a way to reuse spent nuclear fuel and reduce its radioactivity, while not creating any weapons-grade nuclear material.
The $75.5 million is $5.5 million more than the department's request. The committee directs the department to use the additional funds to select an advanced reprocessing technology and start a competitive process to select one or more sites to develop integrated spent fuel recycling facilities.
Hobson has insisted the money for recycling and interim storage is to get the department to take a look at the options but that the department should still work on Yucca.
A House report that comes with bill says shifting to recycling "does not eliminate the need for a geologic repository for future spent fuel disposal because significant quantities of high-level waste that will require long-term geologic isolation will remain."
Hobson said he does not want to put fuel that could be used again into Yucca and by reducing the volume of waste, the government could avoid having to expand the repository beyond the 77,000-ton limit or trying to pick another site. The report acknowledges there will be more waste than Yucca can hold after 2010.
The House report specifically directs the department to use the extra $10 million to begin moving commercial spent fuel to one of its facilities as early as next year.
The report said the department already requested $10 million within the Yucca budget for transportation casks, so this additional money would put $20 million toward "the early acceptance of spent fuel."
"Common sense dictates that these materials would be better stored in fewer, centralized interim storage facilities in remote locations, away from population centers and water supplies," according to the House report that accompanies the bill.
If sites that already accept fuel from foreign nuclear reactors or have high-level radioactive waste cannot accept the domestic fuel, the report recommends looking at closed military bases, nonfederal fuel storage facilities or other federally owned sites.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said at a nuclear industry conference Tuesday that he has not evaluated the interim storage proposal, but emphasized he will not back down on Yucca.
"We are very focused on following through on what I view as my legal obligation," Bodman told reporters. "There are lots of issues swirling around, but I intend to be single-minded on this."
Bodman said his legal obligation flows from Congress and the president approving the site and the department's commitment to the nuclear industry to remove used nuclear fuel off reactor sites.
Also included in the bill is $3.5 million for Nevada and $7 million for local governments to spend on scientific research and participating in licensing activities. There's also $3 million for the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.
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