Washington (Platts)--24Mar2010/719 am EDT/1119 GMT

Members of a US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee subcommittee told Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Warren Miller Tuesday they believe DOE's scuttled repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, should be among the waste management alternatives evaluated by a blue ribbon commission on nuclear waste.

The congressional intent was that "all alternatives meant the inclusion of Yucca Mountain," acting subcommittee chairman Ed Pastor, an Arizona Democrat, told Miller.

"The blue ribbon commission should consider all alternatives, including Yucca Mountain," in order to have a comprehensive understanding, said the panel's top Republican, Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey.

Miller disagreed. "It is not on the radar screen," Miller said, adding that Energy Secretary Steven Chu had decided that Yucca Mountain "is not an option, not a path forward."

The commission, which will meet for the first time on Thursday and Friday, will evaluate alternatives to a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, roughly 95 miles outside Las Vegas, and submit its recommendations to Chu in two years.

DOE earlier in March filed a motion with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw Yucca Mountain's license application with prejudice, which, if granted, would prevent that application from ever being resubmitted to the NRC. DOE has not publicly provided any technical reasons for that action, several observers of the DOE program have said.

--Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com