Las Vegas Sun
This is a tunnel seen during a public open house of Yucca Mountain on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2001.
Thursday, March 9, 2017 | 2:09 p.m.
Completing the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository in Nevada will expedite the disposition of spent nuclear fuel at the Savannah River Site in Aiken County and elsewhere in the nation, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said during testimony Wednesday.
Speaking before the House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, Wilson said Yucca Mountain will help reduce nuclear waste stored elsewhere, including at SRS.
"Abandoning Yucca Mountain in favor of a non-existent alternative would leave the communities across the United States, including the South Carolina/Georgia Central Savannah River region to bear the burden of storing nuclear waste the federal government has promised to remove," Wilson said.
This was Wilson's second address concerning SRS to a congressional subcommittee this month.
Wilson delivered similar testimony March 2 before the House Budget Committee where he advocated for SRS and completing the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, or MOX.
On Wednesday, Wilson testified South Carolina taxpayers account for $1.5 billion spent thus far on Yucca Mountain.
"I strongly urge the appropriations committee to allocate funding specifically for the completion of Yucca Mountain license application," Wilson said. "American ratepayers have put enormous resources to completing the nuclear storage facility."
Wilson's testimony drew positive feedback from at least two committee members.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., said SRS is an "incredibly important facility," comparing it to Oak Ridge in Fleischmann's home state. He encouraged Wilson to participate in what he called a growing "bipartisan nuclear cleanup caucus" in Washington.
"It's one of the fastest-growing caucuses in Congress," Fleishchmann said. "We work very well to advocate. When a particular site has had a deficiency or need, we've been able to address that."
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, signaled support for expediting nuclear cleanup, but didn't address Yucca specifically.
"I'm hoping that if any new infrastructure bill is proposed, the cleanup issues will be considered for inclusion," Kaptur said. "It's work we've backlogged on our accounts for years and years. I think you can be an important voice in that."
About $15.4 billion has been spent on Yucca Mountain, but funding ceased in 2011, according to media reports.
"President (Barack) Obama and the Department of Energy are working to restart America's nuclear industry to help meet our energy and climate challenges and create thousands of new jobs," reads the Yucca Mountain page on the U.S. Department of Energy website.
"The president has made clear that Yucca Mountain is not an option for waste storage," the site states.
Critics of that decision, including Citizens Against Government Waste, place the blame on Obama, as well as former Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.
"The government's failure to produce a viable storage location has resulted in overcrowding of nuclear waste in on-site cooling pools, forcing companies to build expensive, above-ground storage casks," the lobbying group said in a 2013 position paper.
Nevada voters have been strongly opposed to locating a nuclear repository in the state.
