Senator declares nuclear waste bill dead for this year

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

Wednesday November 10, 5:47 pm Eastern Time

Senator declares nuclear waste bill dead for this year

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Time has run out for Senate 
action this year on a controversial nuclear waste bill.  

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Republican Sen. Frank 
Murkowski of Alaska said the lawmaker's proposal to build a 
national disposal site in the Nevada mountains by the end of next 
decade, would not get to the Senate floor for debate.  

``There is no time left to do nuclear waste,'' said the spokesman, 
echoing statements made earlier by Murkowski.  

``But we still have a year left to do it in this Congress,'' the 
spokesman said, noting the bill could appear as early as January 
for consideration.  

Congress is working to try and settle a long-delayed budget battle 
with the White House, putting off lawmaker's departures for the
year, and leaving little time for protracted debate on a waste plan 
threatened with a veto by President Clinton.

The nuclear industry said it was disappointed that no federal action 
would occur in 1999, and stressed that ``severe consequences'' 
await if no plan to move waste from nuclear power plant sites is 
taken in the near future.  

``Severe consequences loom on the horizon because of continued 
waiting,'' said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy 
Institute, the industry trade group.  

Murkowski's legislation is aimed at ending years of fighting over 
what to do with some 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive 
waste currently stored at more than 100 commercial nuclear power 
plants across the country.  

The bill calls for the construction of a permanent nuclear waste 
repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, around 90 miles from Las 
Vegas.  

The Clinton administration opposes the plan, since Murkowski's bill 
authorizes the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, not the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, to set a radiation exposure 
standard for the waste repository.  

EPA in 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.  

Kerekes 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 radioactive spent fuel.  

He noted that the Prairie Island nuclear facility in Minnesota has 
already been threatened with power generation cutbacks unless 
more storage space can be utilized.  

The Department of Energy 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 securing Yucca Mountain as the 
permanent repository, citing numerous problems, including 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.  

------------------------
Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle


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