Early Opening For Nuclear Waste Site Possible

paraphrased by Steve Waldrop

For over the past six years the United States Congress has struggled over what to do with more than 40,000 tons of highly radioactive used reactor fuel sitting at commercial power plants in over half of the states.

Recently the senate approve a measure (64-34) to require that nuclear waste from power plants across the United States be shipped as early as 2007 to a prospective site in Nevada. The two senators from Nevada opposed the bill. The site is located at Yucca Mountain which is within one hundred miles of Las Vegas. The measure faces a possible veto by President Clinton.

The Yucca Mountain site is currently scheduled to be opened in 2010 if determined to be technically suitable and licensed from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"Nobody wants the waste, (but) if you throw it up into the air, it's got to come down somewhere," said Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, sponsor of the bill. He said the government has an responsibllity to deal with the situation but has reneged on contracts in the past with the utility companies to take the waste.

The White House maintains the position that sending the nuclear wastes to Nevada early could undermine efforts to develop a permanent burial site there. They also maintained that the legislation would slow down the Environmental Protection Agency from developing radiation exposure limits for any such future permanent repository.