Washington (Platts)--27Feb2008

Reflecting uncertainty over the US Department of Energy's proposed
nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee on Wednesday said there is "no longer a consensus" among its members
over government policy for disposing of spent fuel from nuclear power plants.

A statement on the Bush administration's fiscal 2009 budget request
signed by the committee's chairman, Democrat Jeff Bingaman, and ranking
Republican, Pete Domenici, said most of the panel's members look forward to
the construction of new nuclear power plants in the US, but differ over
options for disposing of the reactors' waste.

"Most of our members support the administration's goal of promoting the
licensing of new nuclear power plants, and its Nuclear Power 2010 and
Generation IV programs supporting that goal," the statement, called "views and
estimates," said. "There is, however, no longer a consensus among our members
on nuclear waste policy."

The DOE program to establish a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain
in Nevada has been reeling since Congress cut its fiscal 2008 budget by $108
million, forcing officials to plan for 500 layoffs. The department has said
the cut will cause it to miss a June target for seeking a Nuclear Regulatory
Commission license to build and operate the repository.

"Some of us continue to support the department's longstanding and
statutorily directed efforts to license the Yucca Mountain geologic waste
repository, and the administration's request for funds necessary for this
purpose," the committee said. "Others, in light of the continuing difficulties
in obtaining funding for the Yucca Mountain program, support new approaches to
storage and treatment of spent nuclear fuel, including the use of recycling
technologies."

Other committee members oppose the administration's Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership, which envisions recycling spent fuel as a means of promoting
nuclear energy globally with less need for waste disposal, the committee said.

The uncertainty over nuclear was policy on the committee is a relatively
recent development, the panel's Democratic spokesman, Bill Wicker, said. "On
Senate Energy, there has always been a broad, general consensus on nuclear
waste, a consensus that this year no longer exists," he said.