Thursday, January 27, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE to reduce budget

Delays cause agency to seek less money than planned for nuclear waste project

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is preparing to reduce its budget for Yucca Mountain, reflecting delays that continue to hinder the nuclear waste program, government and nuclear industry officials said.

The department plans to ask Congress to allocate $650 million for the Nevada project in the 2006 federal budget, which will be released Feb. 7, sources said.

The amount is roughly half of a $1.2 billion spending plan for 2006 that DOE officials projected a year ago. They envisioned filing a license application for the repository in December and increasing preparations for construction.

But the license application has been put on hold amid legal and financial setbacks, and the new budget request suggests the project is in a holding pattern, lobbyists and others said.

"It is not surprising given my understanding of the uncertainty over the license application," said Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste director for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

The White House budget office offered $750 million for Yucca Mountain, but an industry official said $650 million "was the amount DOE said they wanted and could spend."

DOE spokesman Allen Benson declined to comment on the numbers, which were reported by trade newsletters. An Energy Department official and three lobbyists confirmed the amount.

"It's a very good sign the program is not on track," said Tessa Hafen, a spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a Yucca opponent.

A spokeswoman for Bechtel SAIC Co., the main Yucca Mountain contractor, said the company will be laying off 150-200 people over the next few months. The company employs 1,100 workers on the Nevada project.

Bea Reilly said the layoffs were "expected and part of the process" and were unrelated to project delays. Job losses will affect "mainly the science end" as the company shifts its focus to repository licensing and engineering segments, Reilly said.

On Wednesday, the staff director of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hinted at possible turnover among managers in the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which runs the Yucca project.

Speaking before 150 industry representatives at a conference sponsored by the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management, Alex Flint said incoming Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and the White House personnel office will review DOE management posts.

Asked afterwards whether he knew when turnover might occur in the Yucca project, Flint said, "Not specifically." He declined to comment further.

Chris Kouts, a Yucca Mountain manager who spoke at the conference, said DOE officials are waiting for Bodman to take office before forming new schedules for the repository.

Bodman told Congress this week he thinks the department could complete a Yucca application by the end of 2005.

Flint, who is the chief energy adviser to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a nuclear power proponent, said the Senate will be unable to pass bills this year to help Yucca Mountain overcome financial and legal obstacles because of opposition led by Reid, the Senate minority leader.

"Reid is actively opposed to Yucca Mountain, and he happens to be one of the most effective senators," Flint said. "And on Yucca Mountain, that is to our detriment."