THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 9, 1995 TAG: 9510060015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Congress is poised to act on the issue of nuclear-waste storage. For years the government has promised to find a place to store the dangerous byproducts of commercial and military reactors that remain a radioactive hazard for eons. A resolution is overdue.
A proposed permanent site at Yucca Mountain, Nev., has been studied endlessly at a cost of $5 billion. No better alternative has been found and it is likely to wind up the eventual repository. But even if work started today, readying the site would take years. And obstacles to proceeding are still being erected.
Meanwhile, power companies and the military are stacking the spent fuel higher and higher. Some is in heavily populated areas - including Hampton Roads. In the Midwest, power plants are running out of storage space, and waste sits in cement casks never intended to contain it in perpetuity.
Years ago, the government made a commitment to solve this problem, and utilities in particular proceeded to do business on the basis of that assurance. It's time for the government to make good. Legislation now pending would take a step in that direction.
The House and Senate have passed bills that would defer any further spending on the disputed Yucca Mountain site while it is mired in an interminable wrangle. Instead, funds would be spent to prepare an interim site.
Three have been proposed, all already connected to nuclear energy. They are the nuclear-production facilities at Savannah River, S.C., and Hanford, Wash., and the Nevada nuclear-test site. Legislative handicappers believe the Nevada site most likely to be selected both for its remoteness from population centers and for its proximity to the intended final resting place at Yucca Mountain.
Spending money on a temporary stopgap is foolish but inescapable since the Yucca Mountain site is nowhere near being available and the disposal problem is becoming urgent. No state is eager to become the nation's repository for nuclear waste, but some state is going to have to be. The Nevada site is the sensible choice. Time is getting short.
Congress has apparently decided no further delay can be tolerated. The House version of the bill passed by a vote of 400-27. A final bill should be approved by Congress and signed by the president. It's time to designate a place where the waste created by nuclear power can rest in peace. by CNB