Yucca could still be on the table for nuclear waste: BRC member

Washington (Platts)--8Feb2012/343 pm EST/2043 GMT

The controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project terminated by the Obama administration could still be an option for disposing of US commercial spent nuclear fuel, but the amount of total waste would soon make a second site necessary, according to a senior member of a federal commission set up to look at the issue.

Using the facility, however, would require a change of heart from the state of Nevada, which opposes the use of the site for nuclear waste, said Brent Scowcroft, the co-chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.

"The local communities surrounding Yucca Mountain are supportive. The state, as a whole, is not, and that is where the deadlock came," Scowcroft said during a hearing of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

"My sense is that if our recommendations are implemented, that Yucca Mountain facility can be a part of this consent-based agreement. If the community's concerns can be relieved, yes it could," he said.

The Blue Ribbon Commission released its final report last month, which among other things recommended a consent-based approach to siting a temporary site and permanent deep-geologic repository for nuclear waste. They estimated it could take 20 years to site a new repository.

The comments came after Lee Hamilton, the commission's other co-chairman, urged Republican lawmakers in Congress to stop pressing for Yucca Mountain, saying that it would lead to an impasse.

Scowcroft added that even if Yucca Mountain is used, at least one more repository would still be necessary.

"The spent fuel build-up is such that it is close to the capacity of Yucca Mountain now, so we would need additional repositories in any case," he said.

After moving to terminate the long-planned national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, President Barack Obama set up the commission in 2010 to examine what to do with spent nuclear fuel now languishing at commercial nuclear power plants around the country. At the time, Energy Secretary Steven Chu directed the commission not to consider Yucca Mountain as a repository site, saying it was off the table.

The Obama administration, saying that ongoing opposition from the state of Nevada would doom the Yucca Mountain project, decided to cancel it after 23 years of work and about $15 billion spent on development and construction. Siting it in the state has drawn massive local resistance, notably from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

Republicans in Congress, however, have blasted the administration's decision, and pressed for Yucca Mountain to be opened again. Representative Ralph Hall, a Texas Republican and the chairman of the committee, said Yucca Mountain should go forward.

"It is time to stop playing politics and move forward with the Yucca Mountain project," Hall said.

He said that while he has no legislation planned to address the commission's recommendations, and that finding another site for a permanent repository is possible, the future of nuclear waste is unclear.

"Maybe it ought to go to the mountains or to the depths of the oceans or something," he said. "Maybe we ought to put it in missiles and shoot it at our enemies in the next war we have. What the hell do we do with it?"

--Derek Sands, derek_sands@platts.com

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