GOP lawmaker accuses administration of 'playing politics' with Yucca Mountain reversal

As reported by The Hill:

Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse (Wash.) accused the Trump administration of "playing politics" on Thursday with its reversal on funding for a nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

"I can't tell you how disappointed I was to see this administration playing politics with something as important as completing the permanent solution to our nation's high-level nuclear waste," Newhouse said during a hearing on the administration's proposed Department of Energy (DOE) budget.

"This budget is ... a total waste of resources and a distraction from solving this very important issue," he added.

President Trump announced this month that he no longer supports funding the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, reversing his position on a controversial matter in a key state in November's elections. The change was reflected in his budget proposal for fiscal year 2021.

Congressman Newhouse represents the district where Hanford Nuclear Reservation is located.

While Beyond Nuclear joins with Hanford Nuclear Reservation watch-dog groups in calling for the irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste there to be managed in a way that protects public health, safety, and the environment, the answer is not to dump it at Yucca Mountain.

Trump DOE requests $27.5 million in FY21, including for Yucca Mountain-related costs

From page 7 of U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette's written testimony to the U.S. House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, re: Fiscal Year 2021 budget requests:

For the Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program, the budget requests $27.5M to fund the development and implementation of a robust interim storage program, DOE’s fiduciary responsibility for maintaining a safe and secure Yucca Mountain facility, and oversight of the Nuclear Waste Fund. Coupled with DOE’s funding for storage, transportation, and disposal R&D, the budget request supports the development of a durable, predictable yet flexible plan that addresses efficiently storing waste temporarily in the near term, followed by permanent disposal. In doing so the Administration will establish an interagency working group to develop this plan in consultation with States. The Department is committed to fulfilling the Federal Government’s legal and moral obligations to properly manage and dispose of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.

(Emphasis added)

Of the $27.5 million budget request, $7.5 million would be devoted to "maintaining safety and security and other fiduciary responsibilities for the Yucca Mountain site and continuing oversight of the Nuclear Waste Fund."

See the Subcommittee's website posting about the hearing, including Subcommittee Chairwoman March Kaptur's (D-OH) opening statement, Energy Secretary Brouillette's written testimony, as well as his biography. A recording of the hearing is viewable live, at the link provided above. Thanks to Robert Halstead, executive director, State of NV Agency for Nuclear Projects, for this "table of contents" for the recording:

Due to a delay for voting, the hearing begins at 1:01:00 of the archived video. Sec. Brouillette addresses the zero request for Yucca Mountain licensing and DOE proposal for alternative approaches to storage and disposal at 1:14:00. Rep. Simpson (ranking [Republican] member, [Idaho]) questions Sec. Brouillette about Yucca Mountain, the current law, and alternatives at 1:18:24. Chairman Kaptur [Democrat, Ohio] questions Sec. Brouillette about "innovative approaches" to waste management, especially interim storage, at 2:00:30. At 2:14:23, Rep. Newhouse (Republican, whose [Washington State] district includes the DOE Hanford site) strongly opposes the Administration approach, calls it "playing politics" with Yucca Mountain and indicates he "will fight this with everything I've got." Near the end of the hearing, at 2:37:37, Rep. Simpson suggests Sec. Brouillette avoid filling-in the tunnel at Yucca Mountain so that it might be available as a place to store all the studies that have been done. The hearing concludes at 2:40:00.

White House hopefuls’ stand on Yucca Mountain still key in Nevada

As reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

One Side of a Nuclear Waste Fight: Trump. The Other: His Administration.

The president, eyeing the battleground state of Nevada, has made clear he opposes a nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain, reversing a policy that was made in his name.

As reported by the New York Times.

The article begins:

Before the 2018 midterm elections, Senator Dean Heller stood with President Trump in the glittering Trump International Hotel near the Las Vegas Strip, looking out from the top floor, and pointed.

“I said, ‘See those railroad tracks?’” Mr. Heller, a Nevada Republican who lost his seat later that year, recalled in an interview. Nuclear waste to be carted to Yucca Mountain for permanent storage would have to travel along the tracks, within a half-mile of the hotel, Mr. Heller said.

“I think he calculated pretty quickly what that meant,” Mr. Heller said. “I think it all made sense. There was a moment of reflection, of, ‘Oh, OK.’”

Whether the waste would have traveled along those particular tracks is a subject of debate. But the conversation appears to have helped focus Mr. Trump, who in recent weeks seemed to end his administration’s support for moving nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, a proposal that had been embraced by his appointees for three years despite his own lack of interest. (emphasis added)

It should be clarified that currently there are no other railroad tracks to deliver high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain -- Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians' land -- than those very railroad tracks. To build a bypass around Las Vegas would cost several billion dollars (with a B!), as some 15 mountain ranges would have to be crossed. It would be the largest rail construction project in the U.S. in many decades, perhaps even in nearly a century.

Trump's Nevada play leaves nation's nuclear waste in limbo

The president wants to win the state he narrowly lost in 2016, but he may be jumping into an energy issue.

As reported by Politico.