Energy chief blasted as panel foresees battle over Yucca shutdown

WASHINGTON -- Criticism of the Obama administration's handling of Yucca Mountain hit a new level Wednesday when Energy Secretary Steven Chu was raked by House lawmakers challenging his moves to shut down the nuclear waste repository project.

The chairman of a House energy subcommittee suggested the administration might have a fight on its hands after panel members questioned the legality of terminating the Yucca project office and restructuring its work force.

There also were protests about the Department of Energy's effort to withdraw its repository construction license bid from a pending review, as well as Chu's efforts to forbid members of a blue-ribbon panel on nuclear waste from including Yucca Mountain in an upcoming waste management study.

Rep. Ed Pastor, the subcommittee chairman, said it was the intention of the House that the panel have all options on the table, including Yucca Mountain.

"That is a political battle that we will have to fight somewhere else," said Pastor, D-Ariz.

In multiple appearances on Capitol Hill over the past two months, Chu has fielded scattered criticism about the Obama administration's decision to end the Nevada project.

But members of the House appropriations energy and water subcommittee asked about little else, and most of the questions were pointed.

The subcommittee will be the first body on Capitol Hill to weigh the department's request to zero out the Yucca program when it writes a fiscal 2011 energy spending bill this summer, and several lawmakers signaled they were not happy with that request.

The contentious session came on the heels of a resolution introduced in the House this week by South Carolina and Washington state lawmakers to formally disapprove of the Obama administration's nuclear waste policy change, and as business groups mounted new pressure to oppose the shutdown.

President Barack Obama has shown no sign of reversing course, and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who extracted Obama's pledge to end the Yucca program, which is generally unpopular in Nevada, has said no change will be forthcoming.

Alluding to Reid as "the white elephant sitting in the room," Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said, "We all know why it is closing, and it has nothing to do with science or anything else. That is reality, and I get it. It is closing."

But the process to end the two-decade Yucca Mountain effort probably will take longer than initially advertised. The Obama administration's hope was to be out of Nevada by the end of September. Now it appears that fights on Capitol Hill, in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and in the courts could continue later into the year, at least.

"The level of complexity with the different moving parts associated with the program, I don't think it will be a short or easy task to bring all those together to a complete conclusion quickly," said Irene Navis, nuclear program planning manager for Clark County.

At the hearing, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., argued that the Department of Energy needs specific permission to shut down the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management because Congress created that office in a 1982 law.

Frelinghuysen said he has asked the Government Accountability Office to study that issue and also whether Energy Department officials might run afoul of a separate law that limits work force restructuring in the department. The department has asked permission from Congress to reprogram $115 million from licensing accounts to shutdown accounts, Capitol Hill aides said.

Chu said he believes his department has legal authority to move forward with the shutdown, but he promised to consult further with Congress. He said the Department of Energy does not have a backup plan if ordered to keep the Yucca Mountain project alive.

Even if the repository application were withdrawn "with prejudice," meaning it could not be legally resurrected, Simpson said, officials could get around that by changing the project slightly and resubmitting the paperwork.

"It just makes it more expensive. They could say we are going to expand Yucca Mountain, change it somehow so it would be a different license."

Simpson also asked Chu what the Energy Department was going to do with the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "Are you going to blow it up? It is a big hole in the ground. Are they going to put cement over it?"

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.