THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602100008
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
``Crisis in slow motion'' (editorial, Jan. 15) underscores the need for legislation to solve the political problems bogging down the government's nuclear-waste-disposal program and put it back on track.
Nuclear-waste disposal isn't a technical problem. Scientists around the world agree that deep underground disposal is the safest and most-secure solution for used nuclear fuel. Nearly 10 years of studies have not disqualified Yucca Mountain, Nev., as a repository site.
The government has collected nearly $12 billion to build facilities that can begin to store used nuclear fuel in 1998, as federal law requires, but the Department of Energy says it doesn't have an obligation to do this.
Electricity consumers will have to pay up to $6.3 billion for utilities to continue storing used fuel if the government refuses to honor its 1998 commitment. The result will be waste-storage sites at power plants across the country instead of one central facility at a remote, unpopulated desert location.
Virginia consumers have paid $355 million into the fund - and gotten little in return. It's time to demand that the government live up to its promises and start consolidating fuel in 1998. Only Congress can make this happen, by passing aggressive legislation providing for an interim storage site and finally giving consumers what they've paid for.
PHILIP BAYNE
President and CEO
Nuclear Energy Institute
Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 1996 by CNB