Yucca funding remains zero in 2012

WASHINGTON -- Congress for the second consecutive year is zeroing out spending for the Yucca Mountain project, the nuclear waste plan that continues to recede as government policy.

A catch-all 2012 spending bill that passed the House on Friday contained no funding for the Nevada repository site, which is shrinking in the rear-view mirror as lawmakers prepare to review new recommendations for managing highly radioactive used nuclear fuel.

The Senate was moving to complete the bill late Friday or today. Spending for Yucca Mountain was among dozens of policy issues settled in recent days as Congress prepares to complete this year's session.

"Once again, Congress will not appropriate a single dime to make Nevada the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"Yucca Mountain was never a good idea, and it's time to move on towards real solutions that ensure Americans' health and safety," Reid said.

Reid was said to have used his influence to block the latest efforts by Republicans and some Democrats to resurrect the Yucca project, which the Obama administration terminated in 2009.

The lawmakers represent districts that are home to commercial nuclear power plants where spent fuel is kept in pools and above-ground casks and home to government reservations where millions of gallons of Cold War nuclear remnants are stored.

They charge the administration acted illegally to end the project without permission from Congress and in a move to curry favor with Reid.

For their part, Reid and other Nevada leaders who have opposed Yucca Mountain challenge whether nuclear waste could be buried safely at the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican who advocated restarting the Yucca project, was disappointed by the outcome of the budget talks, a spokesman said.

"The congressman was able to show bipartisan support for Yucca Mountain ... but the negotiations between the House and Senate were out of his control," spokesman Steve Tomaszewski said.

Shimkus, who delivered weekly House speeches this fall challenging senators to stand up to Reid, "will continue to support Yucca Mountain through personal efforts and by trying to show support by a majority," Tomaszewski said.

The action keeps the nation's nuclear waste policy in limbo at least until a commission formed by the Obama administration issues its recommendations on alternatives to Yucca Mountain. Its report is due late in January.

Propelled by Shimkus and other pro-repository lawmakers, the House this summer voted to provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy with $45 million for Yucca-related activities and a directive to resume license hearings on the repository in 2012.

The Senate declined to support any funding that could keep the program on life support. It prevailed in negotiations over the final version of a year-end spending bill that was finalized late Thursday.

The spending bill would provide
$915 billion to fund a range of federal activities for which Congress failed to pass individual appropriations this year.

Earlier this month, a group of key senators who work on energy policies confirmed they have agreed to work on post-Yucca legislation for short-term and long-term nuclear waste storage. The findings of the commission would serve as a base.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., told Congressional Quarterly it is "urgently important we find a place to temporarily and permanently put the used fuel and not just stay stuck in an argument about Yucca Mountain."