Murkowski asks Richardson to nuke waste talks

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Wednesday January 19, 8:38 pm Eastern Time

Murkowski asks Richardson to nuke waste talks

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski 
on Wednesday asked Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to join him 
in fresh negotiations for settling a long-simmering feud on what do 
with thousands of tons of nuclear waste currently stored at the 
nation's commercial reactors.  

Murkowski said now that Ivan Itkin has been confirmed as director 
of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, the 
Department of Energy's (DOE) team is in place for devising a 
comprehensive plan for moving nuclear waste.  

``As the president has granted you the full portfolio and authority to 
address the area, I look forward to meeting with you early in the 
new year to discuss how we can accomplish this goal in 2000,'' 
Murkowski said in a letter to Richardson.  

The Republican lawmaker wants input from Richardson before the 
Senate starts debate this year on a proposal from Murkowski's 
energy and natural resources committee to build a waste 
repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada later this decade.  

Murkowski's plan is plagued by a veto threat from the White House 
because it authorizes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and not 
the Environmental Protection Agency to set radiation exposure 
standards at Yucca Mountain.  

``The administration's past response to legislative proposals has 
been a string of repeated veto threats,'' Murkowski said.

``Despite having personally requested numerous times that the 
administration offer legislation to meet its obligations to 
consumers, the administration has failed to do so,'' he said.  

EPA last August proposed radiation exposure limits much lower 
than those favored by nuclear regulators. It also wants a separate 
ground water standard that the nuclear commission says were 
unnecessary.  

Murkowski, with the support of much of the nuclear power industry, 
wants the 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods 
moved to a central location, as prescribed in law. The waste now 
sits at reactor sites in temporary storage.  

``The 1998 deadline for DOE to begin accepting commercial 
nuclear waste, as mandated by law and affirmed by the courts, is 
long passed. DOE's obligation is nearly two years in arrears,'' 
Murkowski said in his letter.  

The nuclear industry has said on-site storage at many nuclear 
plants would eventually run out without a federal plan to make good 
on its obligation to store the spent fuel.  

DOE is exploring whether to confirm the Yucca Mountain site as 
the permanent home of the waste, and some radioactive material 
from Defense Department programs.  

A departmental recommendation is due by 2001.

Environmentalists oppose Yucca Mountain as the permanent site, 
citing worries that the area lies on a geographic fault line, that 
ground water seepage has occurred where the site would be 
located and transportation of waste would threaten Las Vegas,  
which is 90 miles from Yucca. 
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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/scperle
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