WASHINGTON, DC – House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders today responded to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s release of Volume 3 of the Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Repor (SER). The report is the most important, independent technical evaluation of whether the Department of Energy’s license application meets the long-term nuclear waste repository regulatory and safety requirements, including whether Yucca Mountain would remain safe for one million years, the federal threshold established to ensure the utmost safety of a permanent repository.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) said, "The release of this game-changing report marks a critical milestone in restoring America’s nuclear leadership. Science, not politics, should determine Yucca’s course, and this report confirms that Yucca Mountain has met the safety requirements. After a four-year delay, the public now has the benefit of the first independent safety assessment of Yucca Mountain, and can now have confidence that the repository would be in fact ‘safe for a million years.’ This safety evaluation embodies the objective, technical conclusions of our nation’s independent nuclear safety regulator, and it represents the culmination of thirty years and $15 billion worth of scientific work by DOE and seven of our national scientific labs. I am pleased that this important work has finally come to light so we can move forward with a permanent repository and get our nation's nuclear future back on track."

Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) said, "Yucca Mountain is one of the most studied geological formations on the planet and today’s report confirms what we’ve expected all along: nuclear waste stored under that mountain, in that desert, surrounded by federal land will be safe and secure for at least a million years. I want to commend the NRC technical staff for all their hard work in completing and publishing this milestone achievement. Their work to complete this national asset is a testament to their commitment to public service, one that I admire and greatly appreciate. The conclusions in this report should only add to the bipartisan support the repository has consistently received in both the House and Senate."

The report was initially scheduled for release in November 2010, but NRC staff was ordered to close down its review prior to completion and release of the report. In August 2013, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the NRC must resume its review of the DOE’s license application. Upton and Shimkus wrote to NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane urging the commission to complete and release all the remaining volumes of the Safety Evaluation Report as its first order of businesses and have closely monitored the commission’s progress.

For more information about the committee’s oversight of the Yucca Mountain project, visit: /yuccamountain.

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