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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (186244)	2/4/2010 12:09:17 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361650

Obama pulls plug on Yucca DECISION MAY END TWO DECADES OF NATIONAL DEBATE OVER NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL IN NEVADA By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the Obama administration will seek to immediately suspend licensing for the Yucca Mountain repository and within 30 days withdraw completely the bid to build a nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The actions, coupled with a new White House budget that essentially zeroes out federal support for the site, means the end could be near on more than two decades of debate over storing radioactive spent nuclear fuel a few hours drive from Las Vegas. "I think this is virtually it," said Marty Malsch, an attorney who has represented Nevada in lawsuits against Yucca Mountain. "But I want to see the 'it' when it happens." Malsch said that could be sometime in March depending on when the Department of Energy follows through on its announcement to pull out the license application and it goes through legal channels at NRC. In the front end of a one-two punch, a 2011 budget the White House sent to Congress on Monday declared the proposed nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain is "not a workable option." The budget proposed to zero out funding for the project office in the fiscal year that begins in October. Congress would need to agree to that when it writes an energy department appropriations bill later this year. "The president has made clear that the nation needs a better solution," the White House budget office said in a book that details 54 programs to be terminated. Second, Chu confirmed to reporters that DOE was filing a motion today to "stay" all NRC license proceedings for 30 days. "Within that period, DOE will move to withdraw the application," Chu said. DOE general counsel Scott Harris said the application will be withdrawn "with prejudice." That means the department would be barred from refiling it at a later date, according to attorneys, and that was viewed as the clearest indication the door is being shut tight on nuclear waste in the state. Chu said federal workers on the Las Vegas-based project will be offered new assignments. According to DOE officials in Nevada, there are 130 federal employees in Las Vegas and another 53 in Washington. Another 442 people work for project contractors. Chu said DOE is working with those firms "to see if many, if not all, can be employed in other ways." Under the new budget, the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management that operated the Yucca project will be absorbed into the Office of Nuclear Energy at the Department of Energy. While there are no funds budgeted for the repository project, DOE chief financial officer Steve Isakowitz said $55 million is in other accounts to pay for Yucca shutdown activities. Chu said DOE will work with the NRC to preserve and archive nuclear waste studies and other documents, The nuclear energy office "will lead all future waste management activities, including research on alternative waste management and disposal pathways, such as deep borehole disposal, salt disposal and geologic disposal sites," according to White House budget documents sent to Congress on Monday. "In the interim, all funding for development of the facility will be eliminated, such as further land acquisition, transportation access, and additional engineering," the White House said. pahrumpvalleytimes.com