Obama Rejects Nuclear Waste Site After 20-Year Fight
By Daniel Whitten
Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama won’t let nuclear waste be stored at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, rejecting the project after 20 years of planning at a cost of at least $9 billion.
Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu “have been emphatic that nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is not an option, period,” said department spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller. The federal budget plan Obama released today “clearly reflects that commitment,” she said.
“The new administration is starting the process of finding a better solution for management of our nuclear waste,” Mueller said in an e-mail today.
Obama’s decision leaves unresolved a long-term plan for nuclear waste, primarily from power plants, even as utility companies seek to build more reactors.
Under the disputed proposal, nuclear waste from reactors around the nation was to be shipped to Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, to be stored in tunnels 1,000-feet underground. The Energy Department had plans to store more than 109,000 metric tons at the site.
Radioactive waste is now spread among more than 120 sites in 39 states, according to the Energy Department. There are 104 operating commercial reactors in the U.S., and 17 applications are pending at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build 26 more reactors.
Chicago-based Exelon Corp., the largest U.S. operator of nuclear reactors, and New Orleans-based-Entergy Corp., the second-largest, are seeking permits for new reactors.
Obama’s plan will not curtail work on new reactors, said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which rEPResents the industry. Earthquake Risk
Nevada opponents and environmental groups have filed lawsuits seeking to block the storage project on grounds that Yucca Mountain could be subject to earthquakes and that transporting waste across 43 states would create a hazard and a potential target for terrorists.
Under Obama’s budget plan the administration will devise a new strategy on waste. Spending on Yucca Mountain will be limited to the costs necessary to meet a legal requirement for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to process an application that former President George W. Bush submitted in June, the budget plan indicates.
The Energy Department didn’t meet a contractual obligation to take possession of nuclear waste by 1998, and has been found liable in court to claims by utilities for compensation for storing the waste.
Ed Davis, an industry consultant, said the administration is continuing the application to the NRC to avoid the liability the government would face if the application were abandoned. $100 Billion
“If they terminate the license, it’s likely that that will constitute a full breach of the contract, which could potentially cost $100 billion,” Davis said.
Nuclear-power consumers have paid $29.6 billion into a fund intended for Yucca Mountain construction. Jerry Stouck, an attorney for some utilities in the dispute, said courts have so far awarded more than $1 billion to utility companies.
The government has to “either pay damages forever or find something to do with the waste,” Stouck said. ‘Lasting Victory’
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, hailed the decision in a statement on his Web site. “Make no mistake: this represents a significant and lasting victory in our battle to prevent Nevada from becoming the country’s toxic wasteland,” Reid said.
Congress in 1987 directed the Energy Department to study only Yucca Mountain as a possible nuclear repository, and Bush in 2002 signed a resolution designating it as the site.
The Energy Department estimated last year that the repository would cost $96.2 billion over the life of the project.
The project has been beset by legal and technical problems, hinging on questions about the safety. In June, the Energy Department submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission an application to build and operate the repository.
发表于 2010-9-15 16:06:04