US DOE may work with Congress on interim storage issue: Bodman

US DOE may work with Congress on interim storage issue: Bodman

Washington (Platts)--28Jun2006

Licensing as many as 31 storage facilities for utility spent nuclear
fuel, as proposed in a Senate appropriations bill, "would be a formidable
undertaking," Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday.

Speaking at the Platts Energy Podium, Bodman said that while DOE would be
interested in working with Congress on the issue of interim storage, he
continued to believe that the repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada,
"is a very important project" and that he believes it will be successful.

The interim storage provisions were included in a $30.73 billion energy
and water funding bill for fiscal 2007 that a Senate Appropriations
subcommittee approved Tuesday.

Under the bill, away-from-reactor storage facilities could be sited in
every one of the 31 states with nuclear power plants or as regional storage
facilities. Under the bill, spent fuel would be stored there for up to 25
years before being reprocessed and recycled or shipped to Yucca Mountain for
disposal.

DOE and Bodman see this "as a construction effort to increase the
expansion of nuclear power in this country," DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said.

---Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com

For more information, listen to the 4-part podcast with Secretary Bodman at
http://www.platts.com/energypodium/podcasts/2006/june/bodman1.mp3
http://www.platts.com/energypodium/podcasts/2006/june/bodman2.mp3
http://www.platts.com/energypodium/podcasts/2006/june/bodman3.mp3
http://www.platts.com/energypodium/podcasts/2006/june/bodman4.mp3

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