Bush slices funding for Yucca project

WASHINGTON - President Bush will scale back spending for a proposed Nevada nuclear waste dump when he announces his new budget next week, reflecting delays in the program because of an adverse court decision, congressional and industry sources said Friday.

Bush's proposed budget to be unveiled Monday will include about $650 million for the Yucca Mountain waste project, about half of what once was envisioned for the fiscal year beginning next October, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because details have not been announced.

The reduced spending reflects ongoing problems the administration has encountered since Bush and Congress gave the project a green light in 2002. A federal court threw the project off schedule last year when it rejected proposed radiation safety standards for the waste dump. New standards are being developed.

"The need for Yucca Mountain still exists," said Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis. "The budget figure will show what we believe we can responsibly spend in moving the program forward, particularly in the areas of licensing and work on our (waste) transportation program."

Davis declined to be more specific.

Last year the administration sought $880 million for the Yucca program and hoped to submit a formal license application for the facility to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December. Largely because of a budget error of the administration's own making, Congress provided only $577 million.

Incoming Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said recently he hoped the license application could be forwarded late this year.

Construction of the waste facility has been a top priority of the White House and the nuclear industry. It had been expected to be completed and accepting high-level nuclear waste - defense waste and used reactor fuel rods building up at power plants around country - by 2010. But officials have acknowledged that schedule will not be met.

"The important thing is we're moving ahead making progress on the mountain," said John Kane, senior vice president for congressional affairs for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group. The project "traditionally has had ups and downs," Kane said, calling the latest developments no different.

Yucca Mountain, a ridge of volcanic rock 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was first considered as a place for the nation's central repository for high-level nuclear waste 27 years ago. The government initially promised the industry it would begin accepting its waste for long-term disposal by 1998.

The program received a significant setback last summer when an appeals court said the radiation safety standards for the underground facility violated congressional intent because it failed to take into account National Academy of Sciences recommendations.

The Environmental Protection Agency is working up new standards that supporters of the Yucca project hope will pass court muster. Those activities have been complicated by the recent departure of EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt, who has taken over the Department of Health and Human Services.

Nevada officials also have not given up their fight to block the project.

Once the project comes before the NRC for licensing, the state plans to argue that the Energy Department has not shown that Yucca Mountain is the safest and best place to bury wastes that will remain highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years.

Opponents also have criticized the Energy Department for failing to develop a clear transportation plan for moving the 70,000 tons of used commercial reactor fuel and defense waste to Yucca Mountain if the dump were to be built.

Reflecting a growing unease among some in the industry about a slip in the Yucca Mountain schedule, there has been more talk recently about building a temporary above-ground storage facility for waste. Nevada officials strongly object to such a move, arguing the temporary site will essentially become permanent if the Yucca project is not built.

On the Net

Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov

Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov