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Clinton Vetoes Temporary Storage Of Nuclear Waste In Nevada
From: Stig_Agermose@online.pol.dk (Stig Agermose)
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 1997 18:12:41 -0800
|
>From The Nando Times:
http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/health/080197/health9_29539.html
Temporary storage site for nuclear waste clears panel
Copyright ©1997 Nando.net
Copyright ©1997 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (August 1, 1997 10:27 a.m. EDT) -- A bill that would force
the government to temporarily store thousands of tons of highly
radioactive nuclear waste in Nevada is moving through Congress.
The House Commerce subcommittee on energy and power voted 21-3 on
Thursday to build a temporary nuclear storehouse at Yucca Mountain,
Nev., until an underground burial site is constructed at the same
location. The storehouse would accept nuclear waste by Jan. 31, 2002.
The Senate passed a similar bill in April. But Clinton has told
lawmakers he would veto the legislation.
Although a 1982 law required completion of the permanent storage site
by 1998, the Energy Department still is conducting feasibility studies
at Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles from Las Vegas.
A federal appeals court ruled last summer that the Energy Department
had to start accepting the waste from civilian nuclear reactors in
January 1998, as it promised 15 years ago. But the administration says
it will be unable to comply with the order.
The department is not likely to have a permanent storage facility
completed before 2010.
"I have long been frustrated with the pace and efforts at DOE," said
Michigan Rep. John Dingell, the ranking Democrat on the Commerce
Committee.
"Simply because the government is inefficient does not relieve it of
the statutory obligation to begin accepting spent fuel," said Rep. Dan
Schaefer, R-Colo., chairman of the subcommittee.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., the bill's primary author, said the Energy
Department would continue work on a permanent site at Yucca Mountain
while "we ... temporarily stack the waste outside what is expected to
be the final resting place."
Upton expects the bill to reach the House floor this year.
The Clinton administration has said building the temporary site would
take the focus -- and possibly resources -- away from completing a
permanent repository.
Sen. Larry Craig, a sponsor of the Senate bill, said the wide margin by
which the House bill cleared the panel puts the "onus on President
Clinton."
"It's got to be increasingly uncomfortable for him to be saying 'no,
no, no,"' said Craig, R-Idaho.
More than 30,000 tons of radioactive material -- mostly used reactor
fuel rods -- is now stored at the nation's 73 nuclear reactor sites,
located in 34 states. By 1998, some 26 reactors will have run out of
pool storage space.
Copyright ©1997 Nando.net
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