WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking steps to review the planned revival of the long-dormant nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.
On Tuesday, the nuclear agency said it will spend up to $110,000 from its current budget to gather documents and other information about the Yucca Mountain site, which President Barack Obama’s administration abandoned in 2010. President Donald Trump’s administration has begun steps to revive the repository site amid bipartisan opposition from Nevada lawmakers.
The nuclear agency said its preliminary activities “will enable efficient, informed decisions” as officials prepare to consider an expected Energy Department application to store spent, radioactive fuel from the nation’s commercial nuclear fleet at the remote site.
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican seen among the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbents in 2018, called the nuclear agency’s action “irresponsible” and “yet another waste of taxpayer money on a failed project that has already cost the federal government billions of dollars over the past 30 years.”
Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, a possible Senate challenger next year, criticized the nuclear agency’s action as a way for the Trump administration to “stack the deck against Nevada and … revive the unworkable Yucca scheme.”
The Energy Department has dismantled much of its infrastructure related to Yucca since 2010, with key personnel retired or at new jobs and “truckloads of related resources and documents” moved to facilities across the country, Titus said.