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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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