Berkley Revives Bill to Block Yucca Funding

Jun 24 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has revived a bill that would block funding for the Yucca Mountain Project while encouraging utilities to store spent nuclear fuel at their power plants.

Similar legislation that Berkley introduced in the last Congress gained little attention but is her preferred alternative to burying nuclear waste in Nevada.

The bill introduced on Monday would prohibit the Energy Department from making use of an industry-funded nuclear waste account to advance the underground repository being developed at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Instead, it would steer the fund towards research and development of technologies that would decrease the radioactivity of spent nuclear fuel and allow the waste to be stored for longer periods at power plants.

"On-site storage of high level nuclear waste is already taking place at nuclear power plants across the nation," Berkley said in a statement. "My bill would invest resources in securing and expanding these storage facilities."