Gov. Gregoire speaking to nuke waste commission The future of nuclear energy in the U.S. depends on whether this country can figure out how to treat and dispose of the waste that is created, a leader of a commission charged with reviewing U.S. nuclear waste policies said Thursday.

The future of nuclear energy in the U.S. depends on whether this country can figure out how to treat and dispose of the waste that is created, a leader of a commission charged with reviewing U.S. nuclear waste policies said Thursday.

President Barack Obama appointed the Commission on America's Nuclear Future to review U.S. nuclear waste policies following his fulfillment of a campaign promise to kill the proposed Yucca Mountain repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

It's no simple task, and nowhere is the problem of nuclear waste more apparent than south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation.

The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. The site produced plutonium for the world's first atomic blast and for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, effectively ending World War II.

At that time, the country had an immediate objective and lacked information about waste and the technology to handle it, said Lee Hamilton, commission co-chairman and former congressman from Indiana.

Today, Hanford is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.

"Now we've run into a situation where the consequences are very severe," he said. "It's understandable that the people of this community would have deep concerns about a permanent repository. They've had a long and difficult experience at Hanford."

The commission spent two days at Hanford, touring the site and hearing from local advocacy groups and American Indian tribes about the importance of cleanup.

Gov. Chris Gregoire reinforced that sentiment Thursday, stressing that the key to ridding Hanford of its most dangerous waste is a deep geologic repository to store it.

Washington and South Carolina have filed lawsuits to block the Energy Department from stopping the project, and a legal panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the agency lacked authority to block it. The Energy Department and Nevada officials have promised to appeal.