Critics of the project, including Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid of Nevada, say this recent federal court ruling could permanently derail a plan to build a massive underground storage depot beneath Yucca Mountain about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The administration said, however, that it does not intend to slow down.
"We are still on track toward submitting a license application in December of this year, and opening the repository and beginning waste acceptance in 2010," Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow told a Senate Energy Committee hearing on nuclear energy.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week rejected Nevada's attempt to block the plan to store 77,000 tons (70,000 metric tons) of waste on constitutional grounds.
However, the court also said the administration wrongly ignored a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences to ensure safety from leaks for well beyond 10,000 years.
Radioactive releases could peak in 300,000 years and the administration must assure safeguards on that scale, the court found.
Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a long-time nuclear industry proponent, said assuring safety over that timeframe is "impossible," and that the industry will "stand or fall" on how the court's objection is addressed.
Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants is piling up - there are over 50,000 tons (45,500 tonnes) of it stored at over 100 interim locations in 39 states within 75 miles of 161 million people.
Story by Chris Baltimore
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
