Nuke bill solicits funds to create waste option

Thursday, March 8, 2001 | 11:43 a.m.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., proposed a nuclear energy bill Wednesday that includes $120 million for technology to transform radioactive wastes into less harmful materials.

The total $406 million bill is composed of five major parts: supporting nuclear energy, encouraging new plant construction, assuring a level playing field for nuclear power, creating new waste solutions and improving Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations.

Domenici's proposal offers an alternative to the current controversial solution for ridding the nation of its nuclear waste by burying it below Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Energy Department is still studying the mountain, and a repository, if approved, won't open before 2010.

Domenici's legislation authorizes the funds for research into transmutation technology, a way to destroy or change dangerous nuclear spent fuel from commercial reactors into products such as new reactor fuel or medical isotopes.

Transmutation is technically feasible and destroys most of the radioactive wastes, leaving toxic and radioactive liquids behind.

Newer technology using advanced accelerators to process the waste would allow scientists to speed up the radioactive decay process and produce tailor-made isotopes for medical purposes and tritium to keep the U.S. nuclear arsenal in good condition. Accelerators would reduce radioactivity, not eliminate the need for a repository.

Last year Domenici and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., were successful in securing $34 million for advanced accelerator technology research at DOE and university laboratories, including $3 million for UNLV.

Meanwhile, Reid said he is tracking previous Clinton administration orders that set strict limits on radiation exposure from 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste if it is buried in Yucca Mountain.

The senator has set a deadline of March 12 to receive information on Clinton's environmental orders that were stalled by the Bush administration.

Reid, Senate assistant Democratic leader and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, sent a letter on Wednesday to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Todd Whitman about the Clinton actions.

The senator urged more disclosure on what has happened to rules halted by the Bush administration. Clinton had approved the radiation standards and sent them for review to the Office of Management and Budget. The EPA has proposed an annual exposure limit of 15 millirems of radiation with a 4-millirem limit for the ground water. An average chest X-ray emits 10 millirems.

"My concern continues to be that the administration is not providing timely and adequate information to the public and the Congress on the effect of the 'Card memorandum' on important rules and related activity," Reid wrote in the letter.

At issue is a Jan. 20 order written by Andrew Card, President Bush's chief of staff that stopped the Federal Register from publishing new rules issued in the waning days of the Clinton administration, effectively halting their implementation. Card's order also delayed for 60 days regulations already published in the register but not in effect.

The order was designed to give the Bush administration time to review the rules. Many groups are concerned that Bush may try to reverse or roll back major environmental initiatives written by the Clinton administration.

After six weeks there has been no direction from the Bush White House on which rules have been affected by the memo, Reid noted.

Reid has sent several letters -- dated Jan. 31, Feb. 7 and Feb. 21 -- to Whitman requesting information about the memo.