The House easily passed legislation Thursday to move ahead with a long-stalled plan to store the nation’s nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., would authorize land transfers and licensing decisions related to the controversial project, and in the meantime, it would also authorize an interim storage program before the Yucca Mountain project is approved.
The legislation, which passed 340-72 with plenty of votes from both parties, would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide within 30 months whether to license the Yucca Mountain repository.
But the bill is expected to face resistance in the Senate by members from Nevada who could filibuster it, such as Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican facing a tough re-election race this year. The Senate, which holds a one-seat GOP majority, may never vote on the bill.
Nevada lawmakers say they resent their state being a “dumping ground” for the nation’s nuclear waste.
“I’m here to send a message that we are going to continue fighting this tooth and nail here in Congress, in the Senate, here in the House, and also if need be, we will continue fighting this in the legal courts,” said Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., in comments on the House floor Thursday.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., deemed the legislation “screw Nevada 2.0.”
House members championing the legislation said it addresses a long-neglected, dangerous problem facing dozens of communities that are left to cope with spent nuclear waste from energy plants. Spent nuclear fuel sits idle in 121 communities across 39 states, supporters say, because the country lacks a permanent storage site, and many Democrats said it’s time to create a single site.
“This will allow us to consolidate waste at a single site instead of 121 sites in communities across the country,” Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a leading supporter of the bill, said Thursday on the House floor. “One consolidated site will help ensure [spent nuclear fuel] is managed more safely and securely, while allowing communities with decommissioned plants to begin working toward redeveloping those sites.”
Congress three decades ago chose Yucca Mountain to serve as the repository for all of the nation’s spent commercial nuclear waste.
Yucca Mountain is the nation’s only approved geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste. But opposition from Nevada lawmakers has stalled the 30-year effort to develop the Yucca site.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday vowed to “follow the law” if Congress approves legislation spurring the use of Yucca Mountain to store nuclear waste.
He also said the licensing process will continue to move forward, regardless of what Congress does.
“The important aspect of this issue is that I have a requirement of law to take this licensing process forward,” Perry said before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. “The debate about Yucca Mountain, whether it should be open or shouldn’t, has been ongoing for a long time. My responsibility here is not to tell you whether I am for Yucca or against Yucca. It’s to follow the law and the law says DOE will go forward with the licensing side.”
