Washington (Platts)--1Jun2011/515 pm EDT/2115 GMT

US House lawmakers on an energy oversight panel Wednesday charged the Department of Energy with breaking the law when it canceled the long-planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

Representative John Shimkus, the Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and The Economy, led the charge against the administration during a hearing on the program.

"The licensing process for Yucca Mountain must legally continue so that we can give the American people the surety of a safe, centralized, permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel," Shimkus said. Shimkus, along with the Republican chairman of the full committee, Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, earlier this year launched an investigation of the decision.

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Representative Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican, was more direct. "The administration is acting in violation of the law," Murphy said.

Congress in 1987 selected Yucca Mountain as the site for the nation's nuclear waste, including spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and waste from nuclear weapons sites. The Obama administration decided to cancel the project after 10 years of work and $15 billion spent on development and construction, and many in Congress have said Energy Secretary Steven Chu has no legal basis to make the decision to kill it.

Peter Lyons, DOE's assistant secretary for nuclear energy defended the decision in testimony before the committee.

"Our general counsel has reviewed that and believes that the secretary has the authority," Lyons said.

Lyons reiterated a justification voiced by Chu and said the decision to kill the project was based not only on technical criteria, but on community opposition within the state. Opposition from Nevada would mean further delays if DOE went forward with Yucca Mountain and other sites could see less local opposition and progress more quickly, Lyons said.

The decision has been challenged in court but it remains unclear when a legal conclusion will be reached.

Lawmakers from both parties on the subcommittee universally criticized DOE for killing the Yucca Mountain project and Lyons' answer was deemed unacceptable even by prominent Democrats.

Representative Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, described the decision made by DOE to kill Yucca Mountain as an indication of a failed state.

"An abject failure to follow a federal law is most disturbing and it is unacceptable," Inslee said.

Washington is home to DOE's Hanford Site, the largest nuclear waste cleanup site in the country. DOE is required by a legally binding agreement with the state to send that waste to Yucca Mountain.

Lawmakers from Nevada, however, oppose the project. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has pledged that it will never get built, and President Barack Obama first announced his opposition to the project during a stop in the state during the 2008 presidential campaign.

In testimony before the subcommittee, Representative Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat, said she would lie down on the railroad tracks to stop the shipment of nuclear waste into Nevada.

"Nevadans have been saying no to Yucca Mountain for decades. And we will continue shouting 'no' at the top our our lungs until this effort to shove nuclear waste down our throats is ended," Berkley said.

In May GAO released a report that found the decision was politically motivated and would put the federal government at risk for $15 billion in liability. GAO also found that DOE moved to close the program so quickly that it did so without a formal plan or an understanding of the risks associated with shutdown.

In its fiscal 2012 budget request, the adminstration proposed cutting all funding for the project. Despite that, earlier in the day a House appropriations subcommittee that is responsible for DOE's budget released a draft fiscal 2012 spending bill that would provide $35 million for the Yucca Mountain project and forbid DOE from spending any money on closing the site.

--Derek Sands, derek_sands@platts.com