Industry rejects NTS waste dump alternative

Wednesday, May 20, 1998 | 10:09 a.m.

Despite a $5 billion offer for temporary radioactive waste storage at nuclear reactor sites, the utilities rejected the funds, reviving temporary storage at the Nevada Test Site as a contentious issue in Congress.

Energy Secretary Federico Pena made the offer to the utilities Monday. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying arm, rejected it immediately.

Pena said the extra money could be used until a permanent nuclear waste repository is approved. Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site under study by the U.S. Department of Energy, but it will take until 2010 before it opens, if at all.

The Clinton administration has focused on a long-term solution to the nuclear waste problem. President Clinton has vowed to veto any temporary storage bill until a sound waste disposal site is found. The Senate needs 67 votes to override a presidential veto.

Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both D-Nev., say they have the votes to uphold a veto.

While it appears that Congress will not consider a temporary nuclear waste storage bill before the May 23 recess, the nuclear industry vowed to redouble its efforts to pass the legislation, the National Journal's Congress Daily reported Tuesday.

Pena's deal offered the utilities a way to keep part of the fees nuclear ratepayers put into a $14 billion nuclear waste fund -- a tenth of a cent per kilowatt hour -- to pay for managing wastes. Pena also asked the industry to drop all lawsuits against the DOE. The temporary funds would last until the year 2020.

The money could then be used to pay for private interim storage, Pena said.

The industry balked when the DOE would not set a date for the federal government to take irradiated fuel rods. The deadline by law was set for Jan. 31. The utilities insisted the DOE had to take the wastes and sued the agency. The court rejected utility demands to force the DOE to take the rods.

After the meeting, Pena wrote a letter to each utility, extending the offer to June 15. "This proposal can be implemented quickly, it is simple to administer and it avoids litigation to determine costs resulting from the delay," Pena said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., praised the secretary's attempt at a short-term solution. "I cannot, however, stomach the nuclear power industry's heightened attempts to shove their waste down our throats," he said.