Reid chases more cuts to Yucca Mountain

WASHINGTON -- With Congress nearing decisions on federal spending for the coming year, Yucca Mountain critics are winding up for another swing at chopping the nuclear waste budget to crippling levels.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is seeking to cut beyond a $50 million decrease the Senate has written into its fiscal 2008 spending for energy programs, a spokesman said Monday.

The goal of the Senate majority leader is to disable the Department of Energy's drive to apply, by next summer, for a construction license to build a repository at the Nevada site for thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel from power plants and for other forms of highly radioactive waste.

"We are working with the House side to further cut Yucca Mountain, but I don't have a firm number just yet," Reid aide Jon Summers said Monday. "The goal always is to kill Yucca Mountain and to ensure the dump is never built."

Supporters of Yucca Mountain began scurrying last week upon learning of the latest reductions in the works. A sharp cutback would come at an inopportune time for the Energy Department, as the agency already is struggling with other money problems to finalize its license application.

Allen Benson, a DOE spokesman, confirmed that a deputy in the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management attended a meeting Friday in Washington at the request of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a pro-repository lobby.

"We are asked by industry and by (Nevada counties) and by all kinds of people for updates on the program, and we sent a staffer to sit in and talk about the status of the program," Benson said. "This was NEI's meeting."

The Energy Daily newsletter reported Monday on the meeting. The newsletter said the nuclear industry planned a major push to resist the budget cuts through its allies on Capitol Hill, including pro-nuclear Democrats such as Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Tom Carper of Delaware.

Industry officials think that Reid is seeking a $100 million funding cut, the newsletter said.

Other sources said Monday DOE would be left in the range of $394 million to $400 million if the cut were enacted. President Bush requested $494.5 million, and DOE officials have said they need every penny to meet their goals.

"With respect to the budget, the administration has requested $494 and a half million for 2008, and we need $494 and a half million," Benson said.

"Four hundred million really puts the program on the bubble," said an industry consultant who asked not to be named. "They would be in a very precarious position."

Congress was unable to pass 11 out of 12 appropriations bills by an Oct. 1 deadline, and many federal agencies including the one that runs Yucca Mountain are operating with scaled-back temporary budgets.

With two or three weeks remaining in this year's session, Reid and other congressional leaders are working to roll the uncompleted bills into one giant resolution to keep the government operating through fiscal 2008. They also face threats from President Bush to veto spending bills that are more expensive than he wants.

"When this gets to be an insider situation, when you are going to get an omnibus bill, this is where Reid's position as Senate majority leader gives him his biggest 'ooomph,' or power, so to speak," the industry consultant said.

"What he wants to do here is he wants to stop or delay the license application into the next administration."

Stephens Media Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault can be reached at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or (202) 783-1760