Berkley introducs bill to redirect nuke funds

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 | 8:48 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Nuclear Waste Fund should be used to keep nuclear waste at nuclear power plants, not to continue to study or move waste to Yucca Mountain, according to Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

Berkley reintroduced a bill Monday that would redirect money paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund by nuclear power users to pay for research and development of onsite storage.

Under current law, the money now paid into the fund goes toward the Energy Department's nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but Berkley's bill would put it toward keeping waste at power plants longer, reducing the number of shipments of waste and studying how to decrease waste radiation levels.

"This solution will give science the time to develop advanced technological solutions to the nuclear waste problem," Berkley said.

She has introduced the bill before but it did not move forward. Berkley spokesman David Cherry said introducing the bill again, even as the congressional calendar gets shorter, will remind people that there is an alternative to Yucca Mountain, especially with the funding problems it is having.

"It's the one bill that recognizes reality," Cherry said. He said Berkley wants to break the thinking that the money should only be used for Yucca and nothing else.

The nuclear industry insists storage at nuclear power plants is safe but the spent fuel was not meant to stay in storage pools or dry containers permanently. Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said the whole purpose of the fund is to get the spent fuel into permanent, geologic storage.

But Berkley points out that even if all the waste would be moved to Nevada, some would remain at sites across the country.

"As long as nuclear power is being produced, there will always be some amount of nuclear waste stored onsite," Berkley said. "Rather than reduce the number of locations where nuclear waste is stored, Yucca Mountain will only add one more to the list."

Federal law limits Yucca Mountain to hold 77,000 tons of spent fuel, but the department by law has to go to Congress before 2010 to explain its plan on what to do with the amount of waste above that limit.