Even though lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are welcoming the Trump administration’s plan to deal with nuclear waste piling up at reactors around the country, Congress doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to codify it.
The plan, reported by POLITICO this week, would rely on willing states to participate in a program that would solve the decades-old waste problem once and for all.
But for the Trump strategy to be fully implemented, Congress would have to formally take Nevada’s Yucca Mountain off the table as the nation’s sole repository.
“We got to figure out something to do with that,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) told POLITICO on Wednesday when asked about the Trump administration’s request on Yucca. Lee said he’d “quite possibly” introduce legislation along those lines but didn’t elaborate further.
Across Capitol Hill, House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) was noncommittal about his intentions for implementing the White House’s framework.
Guthrie, in a statement, said he would “continue working with the Trump Administration and the Department of Energy to usher in America’s nuclear renaissance.”
The Department of Energy is looking at various states to potentially host sites for its “nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses” program. The department unveiled finalists earlier this week — Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Idaho.
More than two dozen states submitted proposals to potentially take waste. And at least some lawmakers from those volunteer states are fine with the idea.
“Tennessee has a long history of managing, storing, and processing nuclear materials and waste,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. “As the nuclear sector continues to grow, the state is well positioned to remain a leader in supporting the safe, secure, and responsible management and processing of these materials in accordance with federal and state laws.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), chair of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, was more cautious. “I need to learn a lot more about it before I’m going to be supportive of the rest of the country dumping its nuclear waste on Louisiana,” Kennedy said.
Nevada lawmakers were glad to see the administration pushing Congress to formalize what several administrations have stated — that Yucca Mountain is not a politically viable solution for the waste problem.
“I am glad to see the Trump Administration take a step toward acknowledging what Nevadans have known for years: Yucca Mountain is dead,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).
“But I’m not going to take anything for granted — I’ll keep fighting until I know for sure that the Department of Energy will always give state and local stakeholders the seat at the table they deserve when making decisions about nuclear waste storage.”
Congress last appropriated funds for the Yucca Mountain repository over a decade ago, but under federal law, high-level nuclear waste cannot be permanently stored elsewhere.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), who co-chairs Congress’ Spent Nuclear Fuel Solutions Caucus, said the administration plan went in the “right direction” but expressed other concerns.
The White House’s push for Congress to restart a fee on nuclear generation for waste disposal, he said in a statement, could work on a “milestone basis” but “we should be using the money already in the Nuclear Waste Fund before we talk about restarting a fee that courts previously halted.”
A federal appeals court stopped the fee during the Obama administration. The money was meant to help fund the Yucca project and then-President Barack Obama had decided to end development.
The Trump administration also wants to have the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revamp the way nuclear waste is classified, changes Levin said should be based on “sound science” and out of the hands of the White House or DOE. Both have taken a more active role in nuclear energy development.
Levin also said, “I’m ready to work with anyone, including DOE, to get a real solution across the finish line.”
Nico Portuondo, Hannah Northey and Francisco “A.J.” Camacho contributed to this report.
