Reno Hayek Symposium

John Dunn presented an intriguing proposal for Yucca Mountain at the Hayek Dinner May 19^th, a refreshing new way to think about our nuclear waste storage.  The background presentation included a review of the legislation, studies and administrative actions. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 set up the process for siting, construction and operation of one or more national repositories of our spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.  In 1987 after a DOE study of nine sites the act was amended to limit further study to Yucca Mountain, which was selected by Congress in 2002 and included a 70,000 MTHM storage limit. In June 2008, the DOE applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build the Yucca Mountain repository. In December of 2008 the DOE report to Congress and the President that the Yucca Mountain storage limit could be expanded to at least 210,000 MTHM obviating the need to seek additional storage sites. Currently approximately 60,000 MTHM of spent fuel is stored throughout the country at 121 nuclear facilities in 39 states.

Funding for the project has been generated by a federal tax on the consumers of nuclear generated electricity of one mil per KWH. The tax revenue goes into the Nuclear Waste Fund which at December 31, 2008 had a balance of $29.6 B. The DOE receives money for the fund through Congressional appropriations. Large taxpaying states included IL, PA, SC and CA. $9B has already been spent on Yucca Mountain.

The Obama administration has cut the Yucca Mountain budget by $100M to an all time low of $197M.  There is no current alternative to Yucca, which is by law the national repository. Obama did appoint a former Reid aide as chairman of the NRC; while working for Reid Gregory Jaczko worked to kill Yucca.

So we have now spent  $9B of taxpayer money and statutorily designated Yucca as the national repository. Yet we have environmentally motivated scare tactics to convince Nevadans that Yucca should be killed, this despite the money and jobs that would be brought to the state. John suggests that if the people of Nevada benefited directly and economically they would applaud the decision to commission Yucca. Since Yucca was first designated as the repository Nevada politicians have refused to have meaningful discussions with the federal agencies, thus removing any viable opportunity to explore and then publish a truly unbiased look at the tremendous economic opportunity for Nevadans.

So John proposes an annual rebate to NV ratepayers. First, the citizens would be informed of the status of all the engineering studies and conclusions concerning the safety of the Yucca site. Next, the public will be honestly informed of the economic benefits, research and industry coming to the state because of the Yucca location. Finally, since Nevada will be entitled to negotiate access fees from the federal government through its nuclear tax and its Nuclear Waste Fund, the bulk of those fees will go to Nevada ratepayers in the form of annual payments. There is ample precedent for this with the Alaska drilling and pipeline. John proposes 80% of the payments to ratepayers and 20% to the state coffers. There would be specific rules to preserve the economic effect of these annual payments to the ratepayers intact and to avoid adverse effects of inflation. With good voter information on safety and economic incentive to ratepayers Yucca Mountain would be the nation’s nuclear repository and the federal money heretofore spent would not go to waste.

In summary, John Dunn gave an excellent presentation of a new way to look at and gain from the Yucca Mountain political football. It was widely endorsed by those in attendance with an agreed follow up discussions with state politicians and opinion makers.