House sets vote on Yucca Mountain bill for next Thursday

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference Monday, April 30, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., left, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., look at a cane that once belonged to Sam Houston that is now owned by Alexander, before Perry testifies on the FY2019 budget during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 11, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Congressional staff members, media and Department of Energy employees wait for congressmen to emerge from the north portal during a congressional tour of the Yucca Mountain exploratory tunnel Thursday, April 9, 2015. (Sam Morris/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has scheduled a vote for Thursday on a bill that would allow the Department of Energy to resume the license application process to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee moved the bill to the House last year on a 49-4 vote, and passage by the full House is expected, with support across party lines.

But the legislation faces hurdles in the Senate, where Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is expected to file a bipartisan bill that would emphasize the need for interim storage until permanent repositories like Yucca Mountain can be developed.

Nuclear waste is being stockpiled at energy plants in 39 states. Congress designated Yucca Mountain in 1987 as a permanent storage site. The DOE license application was stalled in 2011 under the Obama administration.

The Trump administration backs attempts in the House to revive that process.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or at 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.