Yucca Mountain resolution introduced

A group of U.S. House members on Tuesday introduced the resolution reported in this morning's Review-Journal to formally disapprove the Department of Energy's shutdown plans for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Sponsors included Reps. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., Jay Inslee, D-Wash., Norm Dicks, D-Wash., John Spratt, D-S.C., Gresham Barrett, R-S.C. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Fred Upton, R-Mich.

"This resolution sends a clear message that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will continue actively working to keep the Yucca Mountain license moving forward.” Hastings said in a statement.

“Taxpayers have already spent more than $10 billion on Yucca Mountain, compiling 20 years of data that inform us that this is the best choice to securely store tons of nuclear waste," Inslee said. "Keeping waste scattered across the country, or in the case of Washington State at Hanford, is no longer an option. We have a solution to this problem and we must move forward.”

Government-funded reservations in Washington state and South Carolina hold copious radioactive waste remnants from the nation's nuclear weapons programs. Those lawmakers fear that the waste will remain at those sites if the Obama administration terminates plans for the Nevada repository.

The resolution is nonbinding but if passed would send a signal to Obama that lawmakers are not enthusiastic to say the least about the administration's nuclear waste strategy. An Obama-appointed blue ribbon commission gets started this week on a two-year effort to identify alternatives to burying spent nuclear fuel rods and defense waste in Nevada.

Keep in mind the House generally has been supportive of the Yucca project despite the outnumbered protests from Silver State lawmakers. It is in the Senate where Sen. Harry Reid has acted as the shot-blocker to swat away attempts to advance the project.

In the meantime, the Department of Energy has asked Congress to zero out the Yucca program in the fiscal 2011 budget that would take effect on Oct. 1. It acknowledged this week the ball is starting to roll on what figures to be the final wave of jobs cuts on the program.

Rep. Shelley Berkley's office is next door to Inslee's in the Cannon Building on Capitol Hill. She spoke with Inslee on Tuesday evening and told him she objected to the resolution.

"They agreed to disagree," aide David Cherry said.

"We will be doing our part to counter this push with allies on our side."