Washington (Platts)--2Apr2009

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged the "enormous legal,
contractual and environmental challenges" resulting from the Obama
administration's decision to reverse government plans to bury spent nuclear
fuel in Nevada in a meeting with Idaho Representative Mike Simpson and three
other Republican lawmakers, Simpson said Wednesday.

But Chu held to the administration's position, disclosed in March in a
budget plan for fiscal 2010, Simpson said.

Simpson said he and his colleagues from South Carolina, Tennessee and
Washington state, all home to US Department of Energy nuclear weapons sites,
sought Chu's views Tuesday on alternatives to the proposed spent-fuel
repository at Yucca Mountain. In addition to spent fuel from reactors, the
dump would also hold waste from the weapons sites.

"Secretary Chu repeated the company line in our meeting [regarding Yucca
Mountain], but I sensed recognition on his part that this decision presents
enormous legal, contractual and environmental challenges for DOE that must be
addressed," Simpson said in a statement.

"The DOE has said what it won't do," Simpson said. "Now it needs to
articulate what it will do, and I expect those answers sooner rather than
later."

DOE could not be reached for comment immediately on Simpson's statement.

DOE has already been sued by electric utilities for failing to meet a
statutory 1998 deadline to begin taking spent fuel from reactors, and some
critics of the administration's recent decision contend the move would
intensify those claims.

Simpson said he will pursue the matter again with Chu when the secretary
testifies on the administration's budget plans for DOE.

Simpson said he was encouraged by Chu's overall discussion of nuclear
energy. "He clearly understands the importance of nuclear energy to our
baseload supply and its crucial role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions,"
the congressman said.
--Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com