- Edited By Tom Lamar -
Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell is urging U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu to halt the agency's plan to dismantle work on a national nuclear waste repository in Nevada until legal issues are resolved.
Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been under development as a national depository for nuclear waste, but the Energy Department filed a motion in March with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw its license application.
Rell made her request of Chu in a Sept. 2 letter. Connecticut has spent nuclear fuel at the site of the former Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant in Haddam and at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford.
"DOE has spent decades and billions of dollars investigating the suitability of Yucca Mountainas a geologic repository, determined in 2002 that Yucca Mountain was a suitable location, and even now concedes that its Yucca Mountain application is neither flawed nor the site unsafe," Rell's letter to Chu said.
"To now reverse developing Yucca Mountain as a permanent storage site as a matter of policy is a disservice to Connecticut ratepayers, who continue to be burdened by DOE's delay in proceeding with its license application."
Rell said that during the nearly three decades that the Yucca Mountain project has been in the works, Connecticut ratepayers have spent millions of dollars to store spent fuel from the two nuclear plants.
The Yucca Mountain repository was intended to store spent nuclear fuel now being stored across the country. The Energy Department has already spent an estimated $10 billion on the facility, which was supposed to open in 1998, but has been tied up by wrangling among federal lawmakers.
The NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board blocked the Energy Department's effort to withdraw its application; that ruling is now being considered by the full NRC. An announcement is expected in the coming weeks.
If the NRC overturns the licensing board's decision, it is expected to be appealed to the federal courts.
Rell also has written to the state's congressional delegation asking for its support in keeping Yucca Mountain from closing.
"The Nuclear Waste Policy Act passed by Congress designated Yucca Mountain as the only candidate site for the national repository," Rell told the delegation. "Congressional intent is clear -- Congress has voted several times to retain Yucca Mountain as the national repository. I hope you will join me in fighting the DOE's effort to ignore congressional intent."
Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell is urging U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu to halt the agency's plan to dismantle work on a national nuclear waste repository in Nevada until legal issues are resolved.
Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been under development as a national depository for nuclear waste, but the Energy Department filed a motion in March with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw its license application.
Rell made her request of Chu in a Sept. 2 letter. Connecticut has spent nuclear fuel at the site of the former Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant in Haddam and at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford.
"DOE has spent decades and billions of dollars investigating the suitability of Yucca Mountainas a geologic repository, determined in 2002 that Yucca Mountain was a suitable location, and even now concedes that its Yucca Mountain application is neither flawed nor the site unsafe," Rell's letter to Chu said.
"To now reverse developing Yucca Mountain as a permanent storage site as a matter of policy is a disservice to Connecticut ratepayers, who continue to be burdened by DOE's delay in proceeding with its license application."
Rell said that during the nearly three decades that the Yucca Mountain project has been in the works, Connecticut ratepayers have spent millions of dollars to store spent fuel from the two nuclear plants.
The Yucca Mountain repository was intended to store spent nuclear fuel now being stored across the country. The Energy Department has already spent an estimated $10 billion on the facility, which was supposed to open in 1998, but has been tied up by wrangling among federal lawmakers.
The NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board blocked the Energy Department's effort to withdraw its application; that ruling is now being considered by the full NRC. An announcement is expected in the coming weeks.
If the NRC overturns the licensing board's decision, it is expected to be appealed to the federal courts.
Rell also has written to the state's congressional delegation asking for its support in keeping Yucca Mountain from closing.
"The Nuclear Waste Policy Act passed by Congress designated Yucca Mountain as the only candidate site for the national repository," Rell told the delegation. "Congressional intent is clear -- Congress has voted several times to retain Yucca Mountain as the national repository. I hope you will join me in fighting the DOE's effort to ignore congressional intent."
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