Republicans react to leaked plans to end Yucca nuke waste project

432 words/18 November 2009/Platts Commodity News/PLATT/English/Copyright 2009. Platts. All Rights Reserved. /Washington (Platts)--18Nov2009/254 pm EST/1954 GMT
Republicans on Wednesday criticized the US Department of Energy's apparent plan to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository proposal by slashing its budget, stopping all licensing activities in December and shifting already-appropriated funds to other programs.
The plans were revealed in a leaked October 23 draft memo from DOE Chief Financial Officer Steve Isakowitz outlining the department's fiscal year 2011 budget request for the Yucca Mountain repository, located about 100 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Republican Representatives Joe Barton of Texas and Greg Walden of Oregon said abandoning the Yucca Mountain license application would waste $6 billion in taxpayer money already spent on the project.
"Secretary Chu could set back the US nuclear waste disposal program for decades, cost US taxpayers potentially billions of dollars, and unfortunately be the most significant decision of his tenure," said Barton, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement.

"Before Secretary Chu unilaterally shuts down the Yucca Mountain program, perhaps he should explain why, something lacking from any of his public comments to date on the nuclear waste site."
Walden, ranking member of the committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said the move would harm development of domestic nuclear power.
"At a time when the country is trying to break its addiction to foreign oil and increase its dependence on domestically produced energy, this seems like a step backwards," he said.
The Isakowitz memo, obtained by Platts, states that "all license defense activities will be terminated in December 2009." It also sets the target funding for Yucca Mountain in fiscal 2011 at $46.2 million, a fraction of the $196.8 million the program received this fiscal year. Fiscal year 2011 begins October 1, 2010.
The document also shows that no funds would be sought for the program from fiscal years 2012 to 2015.
Though the budget request is considered a working draft, Isakowitz wrote that "we do not expect the information to change."
DOE officials have declined to confirm the memo's contents.
Barton and Walden wrote to Chu that the memo "raises serious questions about your adherence to statutory obligations and responsibilities under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and about whether you are taking actions that will increase the department's or taxpayer liabilities and permanently strand billions of dollars in federal funding and investment in the project."
Herman Wang, herman_wang@platts.com  Document PLATT00020091118e5bi001jm