Lack of Yucca option, causing nuclear waste woes, groups saysMay 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rob Pavey The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.Savannah River Site's Community Reuse Organization will join other groups that oppose the Obama administration's decision to scrap plans for a permanent nuclear waste repository in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. "These are important issues that should be taken to Washington, D.C.," he said. "It will be a call to action this board would take a lead on." In March, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu told a Congressional committee that a 27-year, $13.5 billion effort to establish the Yucca Mountain project should be abandoned in favor of unnamed new strategies. Yucca Mountain was being designed to accommodate radioactive material stored at 121 temporary sites in 39 states, including SRS, where high-level wastes are encased in glass and stored in steel cylinders that were to eventually be shipped elsewhere. The site 90 miles from Las Vegas would also have housed waste from the nation's 104 currently operating commercial reactors that produce 2,000 metric tons of spent fuel annually. The Community Reuse Organization is among many groups that have asked for a permanent solution to nuclear waste. In a report issued Wednesday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for 21st Century Energy concluded that 90 of the nation's existing commercial reactors--which now store spent fuel on site--will have exhausted available space as early as 2010 and will need to create additional storage facilities. "If we are not going to store used fuel and waste at Yucca Mountain, then where?" said the report, entitled, "Revisiting America's Nuclear Waste Policy." Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119 or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com Reach Rob Pavey at (706) 868-1222 or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com |