Yucca Mountain's future examined

摘要

In the wake of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) submittal in June 2008 of an 8,600-page application for the licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee held a July 15 hearing to assess the program's future. In 2002, Congress designated the Yucca Mountain site in south-central Nevada as the permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, but the program has been fraught with bureaucratic delays, increasing costs, and considerable opposition from Congress and citizens alike. The witnesses at the hearing, however, were optimistic about the programs future. Edward Sproat, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, estimated that after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission formally licenses the facility, construction could begin in 2013 and open as early as 2020. However, Sproat said, these predictions are contingent on funding being made available from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which contains $21 billion from industry fees on nuclear power. DOE cannot access these funds without congressional approval, evenrnthough the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires that they be used for construction of a geologic repository.