Hannah Northey, E&E reporterPublished: Friday, September 9, 2011The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's tie vote today on the Yucca Mountain, Nev., nuclear waste dump effectively froze the controversial project and sparked a range of views from lawmakers and regulators about the dump's ultimate fate.The NRC panel split, 2-2, on whether or not it should uphold an internal board's decision last summer to block the Obama administration's efforts to abandon the project.The Energy Department attempted to shelve the project last year, but NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board said that only Congress can stop regulators from reviewing the Yucca application. DOE then appealed the panel's decision to the full NRC, and the commission has been attempting to reach a consensus since last summer.The split vote came after Democratic Commissioner George Apostolakis recused himself because he had participated in the project's scientific review while at the Sandia National Laboratories. Three commissioners and Chairman Gregory Jaczko had indicated in congressional hearings that they had voted on the matter but had failed to reach a decision.Today's vote neither upholds or rejects the licensing board's decision, but it directs the panel to end its work by the end of this month "consistent with budgetary limitations." The Obama administration has asked Congress to zero out the commission's budget for Yucca Mountain.Jaczko, a former staffer for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), has been an outspoken critic of Yucca Mountain, while Republican Commissioner William Ostendorff has said publicly that he voted in August to uphold the licensing board's decision. Republican Commissioner Kristine Svinicki and Democratic Commissioner William Magwood have not revealed their votes.Ostendorff said in a statement today that the NRC split vote means the licensing board's decision holds sway. The other commissioners and the chairman were not available for comment."In my discussions with senior NRC attorneys, a 2-2 split is legally unambiguous: the board's decision stands," Ostendorff said. "In addition, the order acknowledges the current fiscal realities and directs the Board to take steps to place the administrative proceeding into an appropriate status."House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the Environment and Economy Subcommittee, released a joint statement supporting the Yucca Mountain project and calling for the Senate to follow the House in funding DOE's continued development of the repository. The House voted 297-130 this summer to increase funding for licensing the dump."Today's action means the Yucca Mountain license application remains alive," the lawmakers said. "We expect the Senate and the president to put politics aside and cooperate with the full House so that license review may proceed, ensuring the billions of taxpayer dollars and nearly three decades of research is not wasted."But Senate Majority Leader Reid -- an vowed foe of the dump -- issued a statement saying the NRC deadlock brings the Yucca saga closer to an end."The commission's long deliberation on this matter reflects the challenges our country faces in safely and securely managing nuclear waste without running roughshod over a single state or community," Reid said. "I look forward to using that experience to work with my colleagues in finally developing a plan to safely and securely manage nuclear waste in a way that protects Nevadans and all Americans from the most dangerous substance known to man."Meanwhile, the Nuclear Energy Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce aligned themselves with Ostendorff and House Republicans.Mitchell Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said the tie vote prevents DOE from pulling its application but also "freezes the proceedings in place" if the project is not funded. If the composition of the five-member NRC panel remains intact, the project could remain in limbo, he said.Christopher Guith, vice president of the chamber's Energy Institute, wrote in a blog post that the commission's vote affirms the licensing board's rejection of the administration's attempt to abandon Yucca Mountain."The rumors of Yucca Mountain's demise are greatly exaggerated," Guith wrote. "Now that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rightfully agreed the Department of Energy did not and does not have the authority to withdraw the application for Yucca Mountain, it is clear the court system is the next stop on Yucca's long and expensive journey."Read more here.