Senate panel delays action on nuclear waste bill

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

Wednesday May 19, 7:33 pm Eastern Time

Senate panel delays action on nuclear waste bill

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - A Senate panel on Wednesday 
delayed action on a plan to build storage sites for the nation's 
nuclear waste, saying it would take two more weeks to try and 
smooth out White House and industry objections.  

President Clinton has vowed to veto any legislation which seeks a 
temporary site for storing highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from 
the country's 103 commercial nuclear plants.  

The nuclear industry has demanded that the Energy Department 
take some 30,000 tonnes of waste currently being stored on-site at 
reactor facilities, transporting it first to a temporary home and later 
to a permanent location in Nevada.  

A compromise being floated in the Senate Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee would have the DOE take title to the waste 
and build temporary storage at individual power plants. That would 
create some 40 ``interim'' sites until a permanent repository is 
constructed at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles from Las Vegas, 
Nevada.  

Sen. Frank Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who chairs the 
Senate panel, said congressional negotiators have until early June 
to reach a compromise with the Clinton administration and 
industry, or a pending bill would move forward.  

``We'll get a decision after the Memorial Day recess to determine if 
we go ahead with 608 (Senate bill 608) or an alternative,'' 
Murkowski said.  

Last year, the Senate passed a bill similar to the pending bill, but it 
never became law due to White House objections.

Murkowski said the combination of a potential Clinton veto, and 
industry concerns led to call for more negotiations.

In April, the House Commerce Committee approved legislation to 
build temporary and permanent repositories, saying it was time to 
safely store the waste at one location. The bill has not yet been 
sent to the House floor for a final vote.  

The House plan would have the DOE begin receiving spent fuel 
from commercial reactors at an interim site at the Nevada Test 
Range in 2003, and at Yucca Mountain in 2010.  

The White House wants to concentrate on securing the permanent 
repository. Las year, a report to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson 
cleared the Yucca Mountain location for further consideration as 
the permanent site by the end of next decade.  

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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