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White House Mulls Nuke Waste Issue
Thursday February 25 5:04 AM ET
White House Mulls Nuke Waste Issue
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The Clinton administration is
considering a plan that would stockpile thousands of tons of
nuclear waste at sites around the country instead of moving the
material to temporary storage in Nevada.
Members of Nevada's congressional delegation and Gov. Kenny
Guinn said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was expected to
present the plan today at a Senate hearing.
The Department of Energy wants to create a permanent dump at
Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Pending
completion of that project, the waste was to have been stored
temporarily at a site near Yucca.
``It doesn't make good policy sense to move this waste before a
permanent repository is built,'' Richardson said in today's
Washington Post. ``Our objective is to solve the problem, and this
is the start of the dialogue.''
Guinn said Richardson would back the idea of dry-cask storage of
radioactive fuel at 77 sites throughout the nation where the waste is
generated.
``It would take Nevada from fighting two battles - on temporary
storage and a permanent dump - to one battle on the permanent
dump,'' said Jenny Backus, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-
Nev.
The Energy Department's effort to build the dump has been pushed
heavily by the nuclear energy industry for several years and has
been fought just as vigorously by Nevada.
The Yucca Mountain site is not expected to be available until at
least 2010.
Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
"The object of opening the mind, as of opening
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
- G. K. Chesterton -
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