South Carolina lawmaker urges NRC to continue Yucca Mountain study

Rep. John Spratt, a South Carolina lawmaker and advocate for the completion of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week to continue its evaluation of the project.

Spratt, the Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he convened a hearing in July on Yucca Mountain. "I came away from that hearing more convinced than ever that terminating Yucca Mountain would be a costly mistake," he said in a letter Monday to NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko.

"I urge you to ensure the NRC's review of the application be continued," Spratt wrote.

NRC scientists have been directed to halt their formal review of the Nevada nuclear waste plan that was submitted by the Department of Energy two years ago but now is being terminated by the Obama administration.

The nuclear safety agency is embarking on "transition to begin an orderly closure of high level waste activities," the NRC said in a statement last week.

The decision has effectively shelved a key report on the repository that NRC evaluators were scheduled to make public next month. An NRC spokesman told the Platts energy trade journal the report will not be released.

An Oct. 4 budget memo noted the NRC had requested a deep cut in its repository activities in fiscal 2011, which began Oct. 1. For Yucca-related activities, the NRC had $29 million to spend in 2010 and was seeking $10 million in 2011 mostly for records preservation.

Even though Congress has not completed the agency's budget, the commissioners who run the NRC have made no move to reverse the course that was laid out in a 2011 budget document in February, according to agency staffers. The budget assumed the project would be totally mothballed by now.

Problem is, the NRC commissioners have not yet ruled on whether the Obama administration legally can withdraw the project from the ongoing review. Attorneys for the nuclear industry and several pro-repository states argue as long as the Yucca project legally is alive, the NRC must soldier on with its evaluation.

The decision to halt the Yucca review has roiled South Carolina and Washington state in particular. Millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste are stored in those states and are likely to remain there as long as the nation lacks someplace else to dispose of them, officials argue.

Spratt also said the decision to shelve Yucca Mountain leaves unclear what will happen to waste stored at more than 100 commercial nuclear reactors. A blue ribbon commission established by the White House as part of its turn away from Yucca Mountain has been charged with finding alternative ways to manage nuclear waste.