Idaho’s Congressional Delegation has written Energy Secretary Steven Chu to express concern over the Obama Administration’s plan to scale back funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility in Nevada.
Yucca Mountain is slated to be the permanent repository for more than 300 metric tons of nuclear materials produced by the U.S. military and 4,400 cubic meters of high-level waste that was sent to Idaho for temporary storage.
Under court-ordered provisions of the 1995 “Batt Agreement,” the waste must be removed from Idaho by 2035, but the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposes deep cutbacks in planning for the Department of Energy to open Yucca Mountain.
Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch and Congressmen Mike Simpson and Walt Minnick wrote that the language included in the budget puts the milestone at risk and ensures that Idaho retains the Federal Government’s liabilities for the continued storage of the waste, which they say is unacceptable.
Delegation members said they would like to meet with Dr. Chu to discuss the situation further.
Crapo noted he will raise the issue with Chu next week during a meeting of the Senate Budget Committee, of which he is a member.
