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Widespread Support for Change
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and other groups support Nuclear Waste Fund reform. In 1992, NARUC recommended removing the Yucca Mountain project from the federal government’s budget. This was intended to ensure Nuclear Waste Fund payments are used solely to pay for the used fuel management program. NARUC has many times since reiterated its support for reforming the fund “so it is fully available for its intended purpose.”

The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition—an organization composed of public utility commissioners, state attorneys general and electric companies—also supports a reclassification of the Nuclear Waste Fund to guarantee funding for the Yucca Mountain repository and related programs.

In addition, DOE has testified that additional delays in the acceptance of used fuel at Yucca Mountain would increase costs by $1 billion per year in defense waste life-cycle costs, operating costs at utilities and Yucca Mountain fixed costs, exclusive of potential litigation damages.

Restoring the fund to its original budgetary status will not undermine congressional oversight of the program, since Congress would retain the right to limit annual expenditures. However, it will eliminate the artificial competition with unrelated programs. This same fundamental principle has been successfully applied in the Highway Trust Fund, and the Airport and Airway Trust Fund.

Congressional Action Needed for Government to Meet Obligation
Opinion leaders, policymakers from both sides of the political aisle and the media support federal management of used fuel and the Yucca Mountain project, considering these objectives vitally important to meeting the nation’s environmental, energy and national security goals. Completing the Yucca Mountain project in a timely manner should remain one of the federal government’s highest priorities.

Achieving these goals requires action by Congress, including the following:

• reclassification of the Nuclear Waste Fund to facilitate adequate funding for federal used fuel management
• elimination of the 70,000 metric ton limit on used fuel storage at Yucca Mountain
• permanent withdrawal from public use of approximately 147,000 acres of land at and surrounding the repository site
• establishment of a “waste confidence” determination, which means that the NRC can carry out specific licensing actions for new reactors based on the assurance that the government will manage the nation’s used fuel.
  

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