Congressional Committee Approves $580 Million for Yucca Mountain

House and Senate negotiators yesterday approved a compromise fiscal 2004 energy appropriations bill that provides $580 million for a planned nuclear waste repository to be built at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according to Energy Daily (see GSN, Nov. 3).

The funding included in the compromise legislation is less than the $591 million requested by the Bush administration for the project, and far less than the $765 million the U.S. House had approved in its version of the energy spending bill, Energy Daily reported. Supporters of the repository have said, however, that the $580 million is enough to ensure that the project remains on schedule through late 2004, when the U.S. Energy Department is expected to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to operate the repository.

“The experts say we have a number that will keep the project right on schedule,” Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said (Jeff Beattie, Energy Daily, Nov. 6).

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