Energy boss: Keep nuke rods at plants

Friday, March 12, 1999 | 11:33 a.m.

A temporary high-level nuclear waste storage site in Nevada proposed by Congress could cripple the Department of Energy's efforts to find a permanent waste disposal solution, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said today.

Instead, Richardson urged a House subcommittee to allow the DOE to work with nuclear utilities for storing highly radioactive fuel rods at power plants until studies at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, are completed by 2002.

The secretary said President Clinton will veto a temporary storage bill. The Clinton Administration's veto threat killed similar legislation last year.

The cost of developing Yucca Mountain as a disposal facility is expected to top $30 billion. Transportation of the waste to the Nevada Test Site and interim storage could add $4.5 billion before scientists finish studying Yucca Mountain, Richardson said.

The department is willing to take responsibility for on-site storage by buying or leasing containers for 10,000 tons of waste piling up at 72 reactor sites in 33 states, Richardson said.

In exchange, the secretary asked the utilities to drop billion-dollar lawsuits filed after the DOE failed to remove the nuclear wastes in 1998. If a federal court awards $8.5 billion and damages to the utilities, it could bankrupt the waste fund, paid by nuclear power customers, to study and build a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain.

"If the department is unable to proceed with a permanent solution, future costs could be even higher," he said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who was invited to speak by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power, said that "science and common sense solutions" should drive efforts to solve the nuclear waste problem.

"I hope we don't expect the American taxpayer to pick up the tab," Gibbons said. "The people of Nevada do not have nuclear power plants. They don't want nuclear waste, and they shouldn't be required to pay for it."

House Commerce committee leaders, meanwhile, met Wednesday to change the bill's language to ensure the DOE has enough money to build both temporary and permanent storage facilities for high-level nuclear waste.

But several key Democrats said the changes don't go far enough to tackle issues such as the funding shortage.