Nuclear neglect: While Congress stalls, waste piles up in 'temporary' sites nationwide
Friday, July 16, 2004
The ongoing federal stalemate over permanent disposal of nuclear waste would be comic if the results were not so dangerous and costly for the American public. Certainly there will be nothing funny if terrorists strike one of the scores of decades-old "temporary" storage sites around the country or if the government must refund billions of dollars collected from utilities to build a permanent storage dump.
West Michigan sorely needs progress on this issue. Along Lake Michigan, in Michigan and Illinois, more than 2,000 tons of waste from nuclear power plants are stored in temporary casks. Although the concrete/steel containers aren't known to have leaked, the mere potential should be enough to alarm Michigan's members of Congress. That especially applies to Sens. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing. The Senate far more than the House has become a barrier to building a national nuclear waste site.
Resolution of this issue already has waited 22 years. In 1982, Congress ordered that a burial place for nuclear waste be built. Five years later, lawmakers agreed that the site would be Nevada's Yucca Mountain and set a 1998 deadline for opening cells to receive waste. Six years later, not a single pound of nuclear material has gone there, leaving the waste to sit in some 130 temporary sites in 39 states. The national need has been no match for the obstructionism of Nevada politicians in Congress and anti-nuclear groups.
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Two years ago, President Bush announced plans to begin construction. The House and Senate agreed, only to see opponents turn to lawsuits. Nevada's Sen. Harry Reid, a Senate Democratic leader, succeeded in cutting off the necessary funding.
Meanwhile, utilities' mandatory payments into a Nuclear Waste Fund -- created in 1982 to pay for the dump -- have added up to $15 billion. This year, utilities have begun suing the government over the failure to use that money. The Indiana Michigan Power Co. -- owner of the Cook nuclear plant near Bridgman -- is one of the claimants, seeking $107 million in damages. In all, utilities have filed 65 lawsuits, with a potential cost to the government of $56 billion.
The latest hitch is a U.S. court ruling in Washington, D.C., that the federal assurance of safety at Yucca Mountain for 10,000 years isn't good enough. The court said engineering for up to a million years will be necessary. Now Congress will either have to legislate around the ruling or redesign the project to satisfy the court, perhaps an impossible task.
Congress also has to step up to its funding obligations. In the last two years, it has let Mr. Reid and his political allies siphon construction funds out of budget bills. The bill currently before the Senate has just a fourth of the needed funds. Likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry hasn't helped. He's condemned the Yucca Mountain plan and, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has persuaded presumed running mate Sen. John Edwards to go that way, too. Mr. Edwards voted in favor of the project in 2002. The country will indeed be a loser if this high priority falls victim to presidential politics.
Time is not on the nation's side. The temporary storage sites on Lake Michigan and around the nation, many near cities, were designed to be just that -- temporary. Some already are said to be unsafe. The solution is to bury all of the material in a single suitable spot. The desert mountain in Nevada qualifies. Yucca Mountain's geologic character and storage capability have been researched for 20 years.
Two years ago, all of West Michigan's House members approved the Yucca Mountain plan. In the Senate, so did Sen. Levin. Sen. Stabenow flip-flopped, finally voting no. Mr. Levin now should show leadership, doing what he can to elbow aside Mr. Reid and free up the project. Ms. Stabenow should re-think her opposition and respond to a national and West Michigan need. The country requires nuclear power and safe storage of waste. It also must have responsible representation in Congress.
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