WASHINGTON -- A new Republican majority in the House is poised to assert itself on nuclear waste matters in the upcoming Congress, with newly re-elected Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada set to guard again that the Yucca Mountain repository plan is not revived.
President Barack Obama with strong direction from Reid, the Senate majority leader, shut down the Nevada program once envisioned for burying 77,000 tons of highly radioactive used nuclear fuel and waste materials into the Nye County ridge, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
A blue ribbon commission that Obama established to study alternatives is expected to release a draft report next summer, with a final version due early in 2012. But there still is a twitch in the Yucca corpse. Two years ago the Department of Energy under President George W. Bush sought permission from government nuclear safety regulators to build out the Nevada site. Despite the change in White House leadership and policy, that application remains alive for now, if only on paper.President Barack Obama with strong direction from Reid, the Senate majority leader, shut down the Nevada program once envisioned for burying 77,000 tons of highly radioactive used nuclear fuel and waste materials into the Nye County ridge, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
A variety of state leaders, congressional officials, energy consultants, environmental advocates and industry lobbyists said the ultimate fate of the Yucca program might be decided in the courts.
But in the meantime, they said, a stage is being set for low-grade conflict over the two years of the next congressional session, with a possible window for change opening when the blue ribbon commission issues its recommendations.
By the 2012 elections, the Nevada repository plan could be doornail-dead and long gone if a new nuclear waste management strategy emerges and gains consensus, or it could be poised for an attempted resurrection if one does not.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/gop--reid-headed-for-more-conflict-over-yucca--nuclear-waste-107602518.html?ref=518
