Panel clears Chu for Yucca post

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001 | 10:26 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A Senate panel on Wednesday approved Sandia Laboratories nuclear waste director Margaret Chu to be the next manager of the Yucca Mountain project.

Now that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved Chu, her nomination goes to the full Senate for final confirmation.

It is unclear whether lawmakers will vote on the nomination before they adjourn for the year. Committee leaders have said they intend to push for Chu's swift approval before adjournment.

Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., the No. 2 Senate Democrat, have not decided whether they will support Chu's nomination.

The senators met with Chu in separate meetings earlier this month and asked her to answer some questions in writing about her stance on Yucca Mountain. Chu has not yet responded, Senate aides said today.

Chu is director of the Nuclear Waste Management Programs Center at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. She leads a team of 150 researchers who study solutions to global nuclear waste problems, according to the resume she submitted to Congress. She has 20 years of experience at Sandia in waste management issues, the resume said.

Her experience includes helping the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Environmental Protection Agency to develop technical rules and standards for high-level waste dumps like the proposed Yucca site.

Chu has a doctorate in physical chemistry.

"If confirmed as the Director of this Office, my role will be to ensure that an efficient management system is in place, that our disposal decisions are based on sound scientific understanding, and that my organization is responsive to Congress, oversight organizations and the public," Chu told the Senate energy panel Dec. 5.

Chu would inherit a difficult job as director of the Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Her main responsibility would be overseeing the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. The DOE has been studying the mountain ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas for years.