Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005 | 11:17 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Even though a national energy bill has been signed, the nuclear industry still needs help from Congress on the question of what to do with nuclear waste, the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute said today.
The industry wants Congress to make it easier to fund the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and may be looking for additional help in other areas.
Skip Bowman, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said more legislation might help "unravel some of the sticking points" regarding Yucca Mountain, such as funding, land claims for the proposed rail line and other regulations, although he did not get into specifics.
He also wants the industry to do a better job describing what is really going on at Yucca Mountain.
He said too many people believe that the plan is to move the waste to Nevada, put it in the mountain, seal it and say, "Here you go, grandkids."
But Bowman said the Energy Department is likely to leave the mountain open for up to 300 years so it could pull the waste out for other purposes, such as reprocessing. Additionally, there will be monitoring at the site, he said at a press briefing today.
The industry supports re-examining the potential for reprocessing, a method to treat nuclear waste to be used again as fuel. It has not been done in the United States for years. Bowman said it is an option to complement, not replace Yucca.
Laws regarding nuclear waste allow the department to exercise that option and do not specify how long the mountain must remain open while holding the waste. The department said 300 years in the Final Environmental Impact statement issued in 2002, but Congress could choose to extend that plan, Bowman said.
Joe Egan, a lawyer handling Nevada's court fight against the planned dump, said the state's research does not support the prospect of the department keeping Yucca Mountain open for 300 years. Also, no equipment exists that could take out the waste and the department has not planned for that. He said the state is preparing to oppose the points NEI is raising during the licensing hearing from Yucca Mountain.
President Bush signed a massive energy bill 10 days ago. The plan contains several incentives and programs aimed at developing new nuclear power plants. Nuclear power generates 20 percent of the country's electricity through 103 reactors across the country, but a new plant has not been built in years.
Bowman said it would be "irresponsible" to work on developing new power plants without a plan for disposal of the nuclear waste that a new plant would create.
Bowman said he "feels certain" with the growing support behind the industry in the United States and throughout the world, that the nuclear waste problem will be solved.
The Energy Department was supposed to take the waste from the nuclear power plants in 1998 but that schedule came and went. Bowman said the 2010 proposed opening has also "slipped," but he has not lost confidence in the effort.
"For sure there is not a drop dead date, but we do need to see progress," Bowman said.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in July that he is looking to introduce a comprehensive Yucca-related bill once the energy bill passed.
Bowman said he has not spoken to Barton about the bill.
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