Congressional aides confirm: Yucca restart a top priority; House vote likely this fall

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up a nuclear waste policy bill this fall that deals with issues tied to the Yucca Mountain project.

House Energy and Commerce Committee staffer Andy Zach was in Las Vegas last week to discuss federal nuclear waste policy. Zach said resuming the licensing process for construction authorization for a Yucca Mountain repository was the most immediate priority.

“We need to fix this,” he said during the Radwaste Summit, a three-day nuclear waste industry event that drew more than 300 participants. “There are a lot of ways that we can move forward. It’s time to do that.”

Rep. John Shimkus, R-ill., who chairs the Energy and Commerce subcommittee overseeing nuclear waste, is sponsoring the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017. The legislation would revive the Yucca Mountain project, which had been mothballed since President Barack Obama’s decision in 2009, citing safety concerns, to yank its funding from the federal budget.

Shimkus has found momentum for restarting the project now that Obama and Yucca’s chief Nevada rival, former Sen. Harry Reid, are out of office. Spokesman Jordan Haverly says Shimkus’ bill, which passed out of committee on a 49-4 vote, is expected to come up for a floor vote this fall.

“Whether or not you’re anti-nuclear, we have nuclear fuel that needs to be managed,” Zach said. “We have high-level waste from our defense activities that needs to be managed.”

Despite Nevada’s official opposition to restarting the Yucca Mountain repository, the proposed legislation has bipartisan support. More than 60 co-sponsors on the bill include Republicans and Democrats alike. Additionally, a group of rural Nevada counties are on record saying they support going forward with the licensing process to determine if the repository can be built and operated safely.

Provisions in the bill deal with several aspects of nuclear waste policy, including resolving the appropriations hurdle instituted by Obama and Reid.

“Fundamentally, the way that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act was set up to pay a fee for a service, you have a contract, you have a fund, that through a series of actions over the last 35 years has been disconnected and been broken, and there’s a need to fix that,” Zach said. “Absent the funding reform, quite frankly it doesn’t matter what we do.”

The bill is separate from the appropriations process that could actually put money toward the project. President Donald Trump requested $120 million

Despite Nevada’s official opposition to restarting the Yucca Mountain repository, the proposed legislation has bipartisan support.