John Siciliano reports that Republicans are looking for a side door to open the nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, after President Obama halted the project in his first term. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chaired an energy subcommittee hearing Wednesday on low-level nuclear waste, but wants the Department of Energy to broaden discussions it is having with Nevada to include opening a storage facility at Yucca for higher-level nuclear fuel waste from power plants.
Shimkus said that the Department of Energy carefully and constructively engaged with the state of Nevada to provide for a mixed low-level waste disposal site at the Nevada National Security Site, adjacent to Yucca Mountain, and that they should consider how these conversations between the federal government and Nevada can continue to advance the development of a deep, geologic repository for used nuclear fuel. He said the Department of Energy entered into a broad agreement with the state recently to begin accepting low-level waste at the adjacent facility. States do not have a place to store their low-level waste after a fire last year at a Department of Energy waste facility in New Mexico.
Shimkus said the Energy Department was directed by Congress in 2005 to examine disposal options for the more dangerous forms of low-level waste and make recommendations to Congress. But Congress has not yet received any ... recommendation. He said the problem would have been moot if the Obama administration had not canceled the Yucca Mountain permanent waste site. However, DOE walked away from the most practical disposal pathway for this type of waste when President Obama halted work on the Yucca Mountain project.
A waste facility in Texas is taking some of the low-level waste, but Texas lawmakers at the hearing said a more permanent solution is needed because the West Texas site has limited storage capability.
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