WASHINGTON - The Senate passed a $34.3 billion energy spending bill yesterday that backs up President Obama’s promise to close the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility. The bill, passed by an 85-9 vote, also covers hundreds of water projects being undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Yucca Mountain project 90 miles from Las Vegas was designed to hold 77,000 tons of waste, but has been strongly opposed by the Nevada delegation, which had been outgunned in its efforts to kill it.
The move fulfills a campaign promise by Obama to close Yucca Mountain, which was 25 years and $13.5 billion in the making. It would, however, leave the country without a long-term solution for storing radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.
The waste disposal problem has become worse since the federal government scrapped plans to open Yucca Mountain. Instead, radioactive fuel rods are now stored in concrete and steel canisters on the grounds of nuclear plants around the country.
The House earlier this month passed its own $33.3 billion measure covering energy programs and water projects that also contained the Yucca Mountain provision. The two bills now go to a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences before a final bill can be sent to the president.
The underlying bipartisan Senate measure has money for a variety of programs, including clean energy research, and has more than 600 earmarks for lawmakers, mostly for Army Corps of Engineers projects.
Unlike virtually every other spending bill moving through Congress for the 2010 budget year that begins Oct. 1, the measure essentially freezes spending for the programs covered by it.
The corps and the Energy Department got almost $60 billion in February’s stimulus bill. The government has been slow to spend the money, with lawmakers especially unhappy over water projects.
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