WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) today sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz seeking information relating to DOE’s nuclear waste management policy. The committee has been at the forefront of developing a comprehensive solution to dispose of spent nuclear fuel. The request follows a recent letter to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to examine what is necessary for DOE to fulfill its obligation to complete its work on the Yucca Mountain License Application.

In the letter to Moniz, the committee leaders write, “The Federal government must fulfill statutory obligations as soon as possible. Expeditiously resuming work on the Yucca Mountain License Application would do just that.”

Upton and Shimkus also underscore that the completion of the application is crucial to the committee’s examination of a comprehensive nuclear waste management policy, and request further information from the department on several areas of concern:

• Yucca Mountain Support Activities


• Nuclear Waste Policy Act Compliance


• Consolidated Interim Storage


• “Standard Contract” for Nuclear Power Facilities


• DOE “Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel”


• Nuclear Waste Fund and Budget Requirements


• Disposal of Defense High-Level Radioactive Waste


• Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel

To read the letter online, click here.

To read the Department of Energy's response, click here.

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