Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site Is on Schedule, Abraham Says

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Monday that he was “confident” that the Energy Department would meet a December 2004 deadline for the next stage in the department’s efforts to build a long-term nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada (see GSN, Nov. 6).

During remarks at the National Press Club here, Abraham said the department would be able to meet its deadline for submitting a licensing application for the planned repository to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He warned, however, that “this will not be easy.”

Abraham noted the “mechanical challenges” and funding concerns still facing the planned repository, which is currently scheduled to begin operation in 2010.  

“We haven’t received the funding levels which have been requested, and then we’re criticized when we don’t meet deadlines that were dependent on having sufficient funds to conduct the work that’s required,” he said.

Last week, House and Senate negotiators approved a compromise fiscal 2004 energy appropriations bill that provides $580 million for the Yucca Mountain project. The Bush administration had initially requested $591 million for the project, and the House of Representatives and the Senate had respectively approved $765 million and $425 million in their respective energy spending bills.  

Yucca Mountain supporters in Congress have said the compromise funding is adequate to keep the project on track, according to reports. “The experts say we have a number that will keep the project right on schedule,” Energy Daily last week quoted Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) as saying.

In his remarks, Abraham said the department had not finalized the transportation routes that would be used to ship nuclear waste from around the country to Yucca Mountain by road and rail. That process could be further delayed if the project receives inadequate funding, he said.

“I can’t give a specific date, but I will also say that doing it right will also require sufficient funding. And so, it’s an important thing for us to have the funds we require for these programs, or else it takes longer to do them,” Abraham said.

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