NRC head says Yucca OK may be delayed

By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) lacks the funds needed to weigh a license request from the Energy Department to build a nuclear waste repository in Nevada within four years, the agency's head said on Tuesday.

But even if the project to store nuclear waste underground at Yucca Mountain about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas sees more delays, it is unlikely to derail an imminent "renaissance" of new nuclear plant building, NRC Chairman Dale Klein told the Reuters Global Energy Summit.

The NRC expects U.S. utilities and other energy companies to file applications to build about 30 new nuclear power plants in coming years -- the first new construction wave since the 1970s.

"Over the next few years we will see most of the 30 plants continue to go forward," Klein said. "Most of these will be built." Energy companies have filed applications to build 15 new reactors this year, and the NRC expects six more before the end of 2008, Klein said.

The Energy Department this week sent its application to the NRC. The project was originally slated to open in 1998 but has been plagued by delays.

The project still faces numerous court challenges and is adamantly opposed by powerful U.S. lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The Bush administration's timeline calls for the NRC to sign off on the project in four years. "If they expect us to maintain that three-to-four-year time frame, we will have to have the financial resources to do it," Klein said. "Otherwise it will take longer."

The nation's 104 operating power plants generate about 20 percent of U.S. electricity supply.

NRG Energy (NRG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in September 2007 filed an application with regulators to build two new nuclear reactors in Texas, the first such request in the United States in 29 years.

Solving the waste issue has been a stumbling block to nuclear expansion, but Klein said waste can be stored safely, whether it be at Yucca Mountain or on-site at nuclear power plants.

"I don't believe that the spent fuel issue will stop the nuclear renaissance," Klein said.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by Gary Hill)