Funding continues for Yucca Mountain project

the door open for a future administration — perhaps one facing different political realities — to revive the site.

Chu explained that he believes there is scientific value in continuing to attempt to license the site, even though the administration’s policy is that it will never be used. Asked to explain, Energy Department spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said only that the process “and other important issues need to be resolved thoughtfully, carefully and comprehensively as we develop a responsible long-term approach to nuclear waste management.”

Industry groups, however, suggest there could be legal ramifications if the application is withdrawn. “Yucca Mountain is still the law of the land,” said John Keeley, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. “We can’t speculate on what would happen if the administration were to suddenly pull the license application, but it seems to me that their not doing so is on some level recognition that there would be dire consequences, dire liability consequences.”

Federal courts already have found the Energy Department in breach of contract for not taking ownership of the spent fuel now being stored at nuclear reactors, as dictated by law. Those courts have awarded close to $1 billion to utilities, and future liabilities could top $11 billion, according to industry figures.

Kelley said his group supports the new commission and he conceded the rush to find a new home for waste isn’t a race against time. “The good news here is we’re not in any emergency or crisis situation because our 104 reactor sites across the country have safely and securely managed fuel on site,” he said. “The fuel can stay there for 100 years.”

With the urgency removed from the process, it is possible Yucca Mountain could linger for years as a budget line item while alternatives are developed and the political will to change the law is mustered.

Yucca Mountain would not be the first aborted government project to drain federal funding long after its “death.” It might not even rank among the most expensive projects on the scrap heap. In 1993, a year after Congress killed the superconducting super collider in Texas, the government spent $640 million not building it.

The federal budget allocation is not the only money being spent on the dying Yucca Mountain project. As long as the project remains on the books, the state of Nevada will pay to fight it, along with environment groups and Indian tribes - with lawyers working on both sides. “As long as this thing limps along, it’ll cost everybody money,” Loux said.