Key Issues
Government Must Meet Used Fuel Responsibility Including Completion of Yucca Mountain Facility
Court Upholds Site Approval
In July 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., issued decisions on a group of consolidated cases in which Nevada challenged the Yucca Mountain project on various grounds. Nevada has aggressively pursued these challenges, having failed to prevent the presidential and congressional approvals of Yucca Mountain in 2002.
In its rulings, the appeals court rejected all of Nevada’s claims, except its challenge regarding the 10,000-year compliance period for meeting Environmental Protection Agency regulatory requirements to protect the public from radiation exposure. The court ruled that the 10,000-year compliance period was inconsistent with a scientific report requested by Congress in 1992 that recommended a longer period. The court decision called for EPA to work with the NRC to address longer time frames.
In August 2005, EPA proposed a revised radiation standard for Yucca Mountain that would extend the compliance period to 1 million years. The agency expects to issue the standard later this year. The Energy Department’s work on the Yucca Mountain site itself and preparation of the license application for the facility continue while EPA addresses comments on the proposed radiation standard.
Congressional Budget Rules Create Funding Uncertainty
Since passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982, the federal government has paid for its program to create a repository through a combination of a tax on nuclear energy consumers and federal funding. This reflects the dual purpose of a repository that will manage used fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and high-level radioactive waste from defense applications.
Congress’ original intent was to ensure that funds were available for repository costs and would be paid by program users. Since 1983, electricity consumers have committed $30 billion to the Nuclear Waste Fund.
The $20-billion balance of the Nuclear Waste Fund currently is growing at a rate of more than $1 billion per year. Interest on the fund is accruing at about $700 million annually. Consumers using electricity from nuclear power plants paid an average of $720 million in fees annually over the past five years. However, appropriations from the fund have averaged less than $200 million per year since 2001.
The Nuclear Waste Fund was established in 1982 as a separate account in the federal treasury. However, congressional efforts to control deficit spending in the 1980s and 1990s, in effect, have changed the status of the fund. Appropriations from the fund, but not the receipts, were placed under a discretionary spending cap. The result is that the Nuclear Waste Fund is subject to appropriations caps.
Under the current approach, Congress must fund the used fuel program within the confines of the discretionary spending allocation in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. As a result, Yucca Mountain funding has been reduced consistently to allow for increased funding in other, unrelated areas, despite the fact that receipts into the fund are earmarked specifically for the used nuclear fuel disposal program. Continued funding uncertainty resulting from the congressional budgetary process could lead to additional delays and increase the cost to taxpayers.
As the Yucca Mountain repository moves toward full-scale development, the funding requirements for the project will increase significantly. Congress must reform the funding process for the Yucca Mountain project to complete this important national effort in a timely and cost-effective manner.
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