Lawmakers want temporary and permanent nuke sites

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, June 9, 2005 | 10:52 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The plan pending in the House to pursue interim nuclear waste sites has not dimmed enthusiasm among lawmakers for the proposed permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, a key lawmaker said today.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy Committee and a leading pro-Yucca lawmaker, told several reporters today that it was "common sense" to establish temporary waste sites for radioactive material that has been piling up for years at the nation's 103 active commercial nuclear reactors.

Congress should pursue interim storage sites as well as the Yucca repository because delays continue to snare progress at Yucca, Barton said.

Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, this year inserted $10 million for interim sites into a House energy and water appropriations bill so that Congress could begin work to establish interim sites, as early as next year. The Senate has not acted on the proposal.

The action amounted to a new, additional approach to solving the nation's long-lingering problem of high-level nuclear waste, at a time when nuclear power industry officials aim to begin constructing a new generation of U.S. plants.

"It's time to rethink our approach to dealing with spent fuel," Hobson, chairman of the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee, said last month. "It's irresponsible the policies we have now. It delays us."

Hobson emphasized that the interim plan in no way suggests that lawmakers are stepping back from their long battle to establish a permanent site at Yucca.

Congress in 1987 deemed Yucca as the site most suitable for a national repository. Congress officially approved the site in 2002, as did President Bush. Nuclear plant operators have been vocal supporters of Yucca, and they have long prodded the government with lawsuits to begin hauling their waste away, as promised by Congress.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has made it clear he is focused on obtaining a license for Yucca and constructing it. "There are lots of issues swirling around, but I intend to be single-minded on this," Bodman said last month.

Barton today also said he was committed to pursuing a long-standing proposal that would make it easier for the Energy Department to tap into a national nuclear waste fund to pay for Yucca. Currently lawmakers set a specific Yucca budget each year. Barton and other pro-Yucca lawmakers aim to change the law so that Yucca spending does not count toward the annual Energy Department budget cap.

Barton today said he aims to pursue the plan again after Congress has finished wrestling with a massive national energy plan bill. Congress has been haggling over the legislation for six years.

Barton, who will serve as chairman of the House-Senate panel that will meet to finalize the energy plan, said that he did not intend to introduce any Yucca-related legislation in the meetings. Barton said he did not "want to play games" with Yucca legislation that would jeopardize the energy plan in negotiations, given that Senate Minority Leader, D-Nev., opposes initiatives that would speed Yucca progress.