Hannah Northey reported that Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington is calling for the completion of a stalled review of the abandoned Yucca Mountain, Nev., nuclear waste project in what some industry sources say shows the waning power of the fiercest foe of the project, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - D-Nev.
With the largest nuclear waste site, Hanford, in her home state, Murray yesterday sent a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane praising the NRC for resuming its safety review of Yucca, a project the White House has deemed unworkable and Reid has vowed to block many times. Murray peppered Macfarlane with questions about the regulatory process moving forward, and whether the NRC had enough funds and authority to complete safety reviews, consider widespread comments on the site and update an environmental impact statement.
For the past three decades, she said, independent studies have found Yucca Mountain to be the best option for storing high-level waste, and Congress and previous administrations have voted for, funded and supported pursuing the option.
With countless work hours to date spent by the NRC on the licensing application and billions of dollars spent at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and at nuclear waste sites across the country in efforts to treat and package nuclear waste that would be sent to Yucca Mountain, it is imperative ... the licensing application is thoroughly considered by the NRC, Murray wrote.
The NRC release of the third volume of a safety report for Yucca Mountain in October, which found the repository would be safe for humans and the environment once closed, represented a significant step forward for the project and reaffirms the Nevada site is the right solution for the United States, Murray wrote.
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