Titus Statement on Yucca Mountain CBO Report

Statement

Today Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada's First Congressional District released the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office released a cost estimate on the legislation proposing to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, H.R. 3053, Nuclear Waste Police Amendments Act of 2017.

Republicans in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce ordered the report in June. A link to the report can be found here.

"The CBO report is seriously flawed. It does not take into account the cost of building the Yucca Mountain repository -- a figure that's estimated at more than $95 billion. It ignores the fact that the Nuclear Waste Fund, which is to pay for the project, will diminish in the coming years as older nuclear power plants shut down. It also projects costs for only 10 years without accounting for the lifetime of the project which is supposedly designed to safely contain nuclear waste for 10,000 years. If proponents are serious about addressing nuclear waste storage they should pass my bill, H.R. 456, the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act, to ensure that states, localities, and tribal governments impacted by a potential repository, have a say in its approval. Anything less only doubles down on an unworkable project that's already 20 years behind schedule and billions over budget."

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