State’s House Dems target Yucca Mountain funding

WASHINGTON — Three congressional Democrats from Nevada are backing an amendment to a House spending bill that would eliminate $120 million in funding to restart the licensing process for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-nev., introduced the amendment one day after a Senate appropriations subcommittee reported out its version of the spending bill for energy and water development that did not include the funding sought by the Trump administration.

The full House will take up its version of the spending bill next week. Kihuen has filed his amendment to change the House bill.

“We have been down this road before, and as I have said many times, Yucca Mountain is not a dumping ground for nuclear waste,” Kihuen said.

The amendment is considered a long shot in the House, which has voted in the past, and across partisan lines, in support of the Nevada site.

The Kihuen amendment is backed by Democrats Rep. Jacky Rosen and Rep. Dina Titus.

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-nev., and Nye and surrounding Nevada counties support restarting the Department of Energy’s licensing process to determine whether Yucca Mountain is a viable storage site.

Nevada’s two senators, Republican Dean Heller and Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, and Gov. Brian Sandoval are opposed to restarting the process, which began in 2008 and ended in 2010 under President Barack Obama.

The Senate appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-tenn., and ranking Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, did not include the funding.

“The Senate’s decision to exclude funding for Yucca Mountain in its appropriations bill is a move in the right direction, but our fight is certainly far from over,” Rosen said.

Sandoval has vowed to spend state funds to fight efforts to revive the project, and opponents of the Yucca Mountain repository seized on the fact that the site sits near a fault line. Just this week an earthquake registering 4.1 magnitude occurred 33 miles from Yucca Mountain.

“If Republicans won’t listen to us, they should listen to the warning signs from Mother Nature and human nature,” Titus said.

Contact Gary Martin at 202-6627390 or gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.