U.S. Reps. John Shimkus (R-IL), Mimi Walters (R-CA) and more than 80 bipartisan members of the U.S. House of Representatives have asked House leadership to make President Donald Trump’s nuclear waste funding proposal a priority during budget negotiations this month to hasten the nation’s permanent disposal of spent nuclear waste.
“As a result of the federal government’s inability to fulfill its legal obligation to permanently dispose of spent nuclear fuel, American taxpayers are liable for nearly $30 billion in payments to manage the spent nuclear fuel in 121 communities across 39 states,” according to a March 9 letter led by Rep. Shimkus and signed by the lawmakers. “Recently, the federal government has been paying over $800 million a year for these legal damages, which is not subject to annual appropriations bills or statutorily established budget caps.”
In their letter, the lawmakers “strongly request” that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) prioritize the president’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 request for $150 million for nuclear waste disposal during final FY 2018 appropriations legislation as a “first step toward reducing, and ultimately eliminating, these escalating costs” for taxpayers.
Congress is obligated to provide taxpayers with a return on the billions of dollars they’ve paid into the country’s Nuclear Waste Fund, the members wrote.
“Unfortunately, our nation’s nuclear waste management system is broken and spent fuel sits at nuclear sites like SONGS with nowhere to go,” Rep. Walters said in a March 14 statement, referring to the inactive San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in San Diego County, Calif., which houses 1,800 tons of such waste.
Of the president’s $150 million proposed amount, $120 million would fund the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) rebuild of its nuclear waste management program, while $30 million would be targeted to restart the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of DOE’s license application for the Yucca Mountain repository project in Nevada, according to the letter.
“Congress in a bipartisan fashion funded the Yucca Mountain project for a generation,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is time for this project to resume. We look forward to working with you to advance a solution to our nation’s nuclear waste management challenges.”
Rep. Walters said that California ratepayers also are committed to the project and thus far have contributed more than $2 billion to help build the permanent nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, which is located across the border from California’s Death Valley.
“By providing the Department of Energy with the funds it needs to resume its review of the Yucca Mountain license, we can begin the process of moving spent nuclear fuel out of our communities and into interim and permanent storage sites,” said Walters, adding that she’s equally committed to ensuring the safety of Orange County, Calif., residents.