Senators Reject Stopgap Nuclear Waste Storage

Senators Reject Stopgap Nuclear Waste Storage

Jun 16 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

Two senators on Tuesday rejected the idea of storing nuclear waste at stopgap government sites while work continues to develop a repository at Yucca Mountain.

With the Nevada project facing undetermined delays, the House passed an annual Energy Department spending bill three weeks ago directing the department to start moving spent nuclear fuel from commercial utilities to one or two federally managed locations by 2007.

But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the House proposal "half- baked," and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said it was "totally inadequate."

Domenici is chairman of the Senate's energy and water subcommittee, while Reid is the top Democrat. They laid out their positions as the subcommittee approved a $31.2 billion spending bill covering energy programs, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and an assortment of smaller agencies.

With Reid as an author, the energy and water bill customarily contains millions of dollars in spending targeted to Nevada. The latest earmarks $333.2 million to the state. The list includes $45 million for geothermal, solar and hydrogen energy research conducted at Nevada universities.

For Yucca Mountain, the Senate panel allocated $577 million to continue the project in 2006. That is the same amount Congress passed for this year and $64 million less than President Bush requested for next year.

The state of Nevada would be given $3.5 million to monitor DOE activity on Yucca, while Nevada counties and Inyo County in California would share $8.5 million. Nye County would get an additional $500,000 as the repository host county.

With Domenici and Reid opposed, aides said the Senate bill does not address interim nuclear waste storage. That means a House- Senate conference committee will need to negotiate the issue later this year.

But the senators said they are strongly opposed the approach taken by House lawmakers.

The House allocated $10 million extra and told the energy department to spend another $10 million from a transportation account to begin work on interim storage.

The bill directed Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to identify candidate sites within four months, a prospect that alarmed states containing possible targets like former nuclear weapons plants and closed military bases.

Domenici said he was open to considering changes to U.S. nuclear waste policy that could include interim nuclear waste storage, but "you can't start a program of that importance with $10 million and a paragraph."

Reid said changes are "going to be hard work and involve a lot of give and take and consensus building. All the House has done has been to stir up members in highly unproductive ways."

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .