Newhouse urges support for nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) expressed disappointment that President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2021 does not include funding for the licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

“It is disappointing to see Yucca Mountain continued to be used as a political pawn,” said Rep. Newhouse. “With 56 million gallons of nuclear waste at the Hanford Site alone, no district in the United States is more dependent on Yucca Mountain than Washington’s 4th.”

The Congressman said the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site in Washington relies on a permanent waste repository. However, the president’s budget proposal calls for finding alternative solutions to the issue of disposing spent nuclear fuel.

“The Administration is strongly committed to fulfilling its legal obligations to manage and dispose of the Nation’s nuclear waste and will not stand idly by given the stalemate on Yucca Mountain. To create momentum and ensure progress, the Administration is initiating processes to develop alternative solutions and engaging States in developing an actionable path forward,” the budget said.

In the Tri-Cities community that Rep. Newhouse represents in Washington state, and many other communities across the country, the federal government has failed to meet its obligation to collect and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power production and from nuclear defense activities, the congressman’s office said.

Congress originally selected Yucca Mountain as the site for the nation’s nuclear waste repository in the 1980s. The Obama administration ultimately decided to terminate the project in 2010.

“Since coming to Congress, I have pledged to work to finally fulfill the federal government’s promise to communities across the country – including the Tri-Cities community in Washington – to complete Yucca Mountain once and for all,” Rep. Newhouse said. “I urge President Trump to reconsider this change in position.”