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Re: Gov't Ownership of Waste Sought
Another useless piece of legislation. It is already stored at the sites and
some like CP&L are lucky enough to have storage for consolidation of 4
plants into one storage site. Furthermore, the Government already owns it.
Yes, Alaska, the hot bed for commercial nuclear power. Sounds like a
perfect place for a disposal site. Wonder what the Senator would think
about that.
Just get on with the thing in Nevada and quit the political posturing.
Bob Denne
ATG, Richland
----- Original Message -----
From: Mario Iannaccone <miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 1999 5:23 AM
Subject: Gov't Ownership of Waste Sought
> 07:42 PM ET 06/15/99
>
> Gov't Ownership of Waste Sought
> By H. JOSEF HEBERT=
> Associated Press Writer=
> WASHINGTON (AP) _ In what could be a break in the five-year
> stalemate over what to do with commercial nuclear waste, a leading
> Republican senator is offering a proposal that would keep the waste
> at reactor sites, but shift ownership to the federal government.
> The proposal by Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, reflected a
> departure from the argument he and many other Republican senators
> have long made that the government should move the waste to a
> yet-to-be-built temporary storage facility in Nevada.
> The proposal was expected to be voted on Wednesday by the Senate
> Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Murkowski chairs.
> Murkowski said he believes he has enough support to get it
> approved.
> But Murkowski also has conditions on the proposal, including
> that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, instead of the
> Environmental Protection Agency, set radiation exposure standards
> at a future permanent waste burial facility. The EPA has
> traditionally pushed for more stringent standards, including a
> requirement to protect groundwater that the nuclear industry claims
> is impossible to meet.
> The dispute over exposure standards was likely to pose a
> significant problem and could determine whether the Clinton
> administration will go along with the compromise, some
> congressional sources said.
> Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, the committee's ranking
> Democrat, will vote against Murkowski's proposal unless the EPA has
> jurisdiction over the exposure standards, an aide said yesterday.
> Energy Secretary Bill Richardson first proposed in February that
> the government accept title to the waste kept at nuclear plants
> around the country, but that the waste remain at the reactor sites
> until a permanent burial facility on Yucca Mountain in Nevada is
> approved and completed.
> The industry, which argues the government promised to assume
> responsibility for the waste, rejected the idea. A number of suits
> are being litigated over the government's failure to dispose of the
> more than 40,000 tons of highly radioactive used reactor fuel now
> kept at plants in 34 states. The waste is growing at the rate of
> 2,000 tons a year.
> The issue has stymied Congress for more than five years.
> Repeated attempts to pass legislation requiring a temporary storage
> facility in Nevada have failed, largely because the White House has
> threatened to veto it.
> President Clinton has maintained that no temporary storage
> facility should be built because it would ease pressure to develop
> a permanent burial ground at Yucca Mountain, in the Nevada desert
> about 90 miles from Las Vegas. The Yucca site is being evaluated,
> but even if approved, it will not be ready to accept shipments
> until 2010, and possibly later.
> Murkowski and Richardson discussed the waste issue at length
> during a recent trip to Alaska. Murkowski said he would prefer the
> waste be taken off utilities' hands as the government promised, but
> that there's no chance such legislation could pass and survive a
> veto.
> ``We've been there and done that,'' said Murkowski in an
> interview, referring to repeated efforts to pass legislation to
> build a temporary storage facility in Nevada that fell short
> because of the veto threat.
>
> Submitted by,
> Mario Iannaccone,
> Health Physicist
> miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us
>
>
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