A Senate spending bill doesn’t include money to complete licensing for Yucca Mountain, a move that could kick a contentious fight over the Nevada nuclear waste site to the chamber floor.
The tactic avoids a major showdown over the budget with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the strongest congressional Yucca opponent. It does, however, preserve a chance for Yucca backers to force an amendment vote during a time when they feel the political landscape on the waste site is swinging in their favor.
The Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee sent the overall $35.4 billion spending bill — which covers the Energy Department, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies — to the full committee, which will mark the legislation up Thursday.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the subcommittee, said he looked forward to an “open amendment process” to settle Yucca.
“Putting an end to our decades-long nuclear waste stalemate will involve completing Yucca Mountain, and I look forward to an open amendment process in the U.S. Senate and to working with the House to remove obstacles to nuclear power,” the Tennessee Republican said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said it doesn’t have the necessary funding to complete its licensing review for Yucca. House Republicans, who are insistent that a 1982 federal law requires regulators to weigh in on Yucca one way or another, have tried to send it more money in previous sessions. The Democratic-held chamber blocked those attempts.
But recent developments have given Yucca supporters hope that the stalemate hanging over the project is almost over.
The Republican-controlled Congress certainly helps its chances. And Republicans say recent findings from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Yucca could safely store nuclear waste indefinitely removed a key argument for Yucca critics.
On top of that, Reid isn’t running for re-election in 2016. He pushed President Obama to pull the plug on the site in 2009 as part of a campaign promise for Obama’s first presidential run. While it’s unlikely Reid’s replacement would support Yucca — Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller also vehemently opposes it — Reid has used his clout extensively to keep Yucca blocked.
In the end, though, the Energy Department lacks the land rights to Yucca. Those rights must be transferred by Congress, and there are plenty of Democrats who disagree with the permanent waste dump. Water rights for the site also are tied up in an ongoing court battle.
Noting those difficulties, senators on both sides of the aisle have pushed ahead on alternative legislation that doesn’t include Yucca. They and the independent Blue Ribbon Commission assembled by Obama in 2010 said the U.S. must move on to interim storage sites and look at states that want to host nuclear waste rather than force it on Yucca.
To that end, the spending bill Alexander and top Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California authored promoted a pilot program for storing nuclear fuel. It also included language to bolster Energy Department efforts with private storage facilities, such as separate ones that have been proposed by companies in Texas and New Mexico.
“The legislation Sen. Feinstein and I worked to develop is a bipartisan starting point,” Alexander said.
