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U.S. Lawmakers Reduce Yucca Funding
U.S. lawmakers yesterday reduced the fiscal 2006 budget for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada below 2005 levels and below President George W. Bush’s spending request, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 21). House and Senate negotiators also dropped a House of Representatives plan for temporary nuclear waste storage sites, instead allocating $50 million to advocate the recycling of spent nuclear fuel. The $450 million set aside for the Nevada site, which is proposed to hold 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, is included in the $30.5 billion water and energy appropriations bill. Yucca had received $577 million annually for the last two years. The White House sought $650 million for fiscal 2006, AP reported. “No matter what side of Yucca you're on, the truth of the matter is Yucca is … not on the schedule that even was predicted the last time. It's behind schedule,” said Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee. “We think that this will keep what should be done on schedule.” The opening date for Yucca has now moved back to 2012 at the earliest, AP reported. “While this funding decision may force us to go at a slower pace, it will not deter us from our principles of using sound science to develop a high-quality license application and a disposal facility that is safe and reliable to operate,” said Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Energy Department. The appropriations bill also: designates $220 million for constriction of a mixed-oxide fuel processing plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; allocates $337 million for the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, despite Domenici’s efforts to cut funding; and drops money for study of the nuclear “bunker-buster” warhead (Erica Werner, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 7).
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