Capitol Hill talk focuses on temporary storage sites

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, March 18, 2005 | 10:27 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- As the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain faces more challenges, there is increased talk on Capitol Hill about looking at temporary storage sites for nuclear waste, but the Energy Department remains committed to moving ahead.

House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, suggested the department look at alternatives to Yucca so the government would not continue to be sued by utilities still storing their own waste.

The department was supposed to take used nuclear fuel from commercial reactors in 1998, but without a repository, it has failed to do so and faces numerous lawsuits from utilities for breaking its contract.

The repository may not open until 2012 or 2015 due to numerous problems, the latest involving possible falsified information from the U.S. Geological Survey on scientific data about the mountain.

"We have committed to these utilities that we are going to take this stuff," Hobson said. "We are still sitting around not doing anything. Nobody's doing anything."

Hobson suggested a site that could store waste for 100 to 500 years, possibly at the Nevada Test Site, saying that scientists could find a better way to store or reprocess the fuel.

"That may be too common sense a thing to do to avoid this litigation," Hobson said. "It doesn't take brain science to think that we could save money in the long run to get this stuff out of where it is and live up to our contractual obligation."

"I understand completely," said Theodore Garrish, the Energy Department's acting director of Yucca Mountain.

Hobson said the government takes over spent nuclear fuel from other countries and stores it at department sites so wondered about taking spent fuel from U.S. power plants and storing it at department sites until Yucca would open.

"Would this make it more secure and cheaper?" Hobson said.

Garrish said this could not happen because spent fuel is owned by the utilities.

"But, I understand your point," Garrish said.

Hobson said he was not going to introduce any separate legislation on interim storage but noted plans in the Senate.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to introduce a bill that would allow the department to use the money in a national nuclear waste fund to manage the radioactive material at the plants. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has also pushed for such a measure in a House bill.

Hobson said this idea "doesn't really solve the problem" because it still leave the waste at the sites, which is a security problem.

"You are better off having all this stuff in locations together," Hobson said.

But Reid said the idea of one facility does not really increase security because waste will still remain at nuclear power plants as long as they are operating.

Reid also said Thursday that he has had conversation with Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., about interim storage.

"Our discussions were that every nuclear generating facility would do on-site dry cask storage," Reid said.

Domenici spokeswoman Marnie Funk said there are no plans at this point to introduce a bill on interim storage.

But in a book he wrote on nuclear energy last year, Domenici said he would seriously consider a bill that would designate an interim storage site that could hold waste for up to 75 years.

"We need a permanent storage facility, but the nation is now held hostage by current reliance on Yucca Mountain," Domenici wrote.

Hobson said at a hearing Wednesday that his motivation on the Yucca repository is "undiminished" and that opening the repository is the "single most important issues on this subcommittee's agenda."

"My motivation is not wearing thin, just my patience with those who want to sit on the back bench and watch others fight this fight for them," Hobson said. "We need to get on with this project."

Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., asked Garrish if there was any support within the department for storing waste at nuclear power plants versus moving ahead with the repository.

"I feel like we are pushing a locomotive from Arkansas to Yucca Mountain with a wet noodle," Berry said. "If we are going to get that thing two-thirds of the way out there, and then give up, turn around and come back home, I'd like to know about it."

Garrish said the country is obligated to take used fuel from commercial nuclear power plants.

"It is much better stored in one central remote location in a desert environment and the Congress has supported that," Garrish said. "We are 100 percent committed to that goal."