Senate bill would start search for waste storage site

Apr 25 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Annette Cary Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

The nation would start looking for one or more temporary storage sites to consolidate its high level nuclear waste under a provision approved by the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday.

The move could lead to Hanford's nomination to be one of the sites and bring more waste to the site while environmental cleanup is continuing there, warned Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest in Seattle.

However, the Senate bill and accompanying report includes language that appears to create significant hurdles to choosing Hanford as the site against state or local wishes.

The Senate's instructions to the Department of Energy would require it to follow the Blue Ribbon Commission's advice that a site be picked based on consensus.

The nation's high level radioactive waste, including Hanford's irradiated nuclear fuel and high level waste treated at the vitrification plant, had been planned to be sent to a proposed national repository in Yucca Mountain, Nev. However, the Obama administration has shut down work on the project, which many in Nevada opposed.

The Senate bill would establish a pilot program with DOE finding a site, building and operating a temporary storage facility using mostly fees collected from utility customers who use nuclear power to pay for a national repository for used nuclear power fuel.

Within 120 days of passage of the act, DOE would be required to request proposals for temporary storage facilities. However, a report accompanying the bill specifies that DOE may consider only proposals it receives, rather than also looking at sites for which it does not receive a proposal.

DOE approval only may be given to a site if the governor of the state, local governments and affected tribes all agree to the proposal, according to the bill. Congress then would need to also agree.

Congress is looking for one or more temporary consolidated storage sites because it faces a potential $20 billion liability by 2020 if it does not accept commercial spent fuel by then.

Regardless of the Senate bill, Hanford remains at risk of becoming an interim storage site for its high level radioactive waste for the next 20 to 30 years, said Gary Petersen, vice president of Hanford programs for the Tri-City Development Council.

DOE is making plans to construct temporary storage for glassified waste at Hanford when the vitrification plant begins operating as early as 2019 since it does not appear the nation will have a repository to accept it then.

-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com; more Hanford news at hanfordnews.com