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Feb. 08, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Legislator eyes recycling

New approach on waste urged

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
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WASHINGTON -- A Michigan congressman who was an early booster of the Yucca Mountain Project said Thursday "something needs to change" in how the nation manages its nuclear waste.

Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican whose district contains two nuclear power plants, said he still favors building a Nevada spent fuel repository.

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    • But at a House budget hearing, he urged Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman also to explore the "great promise" of nuclear fuel recycling.

    When it comes to nuclear power, Upton likened Yucca Mountain to "the 800-pound gorilla in the room."

    "We've been talking about a spent fuel repository at Yucca Mountain for years and years," he said. "We have thrown billions of dollars at the problem. Something needs to change."

    The remarks show how the landscape has shifted over the years that Yucca Mountain project has been delayed because of internal management problems, legal challenges and opposition from critics.

    Where once the Nevada repository was seemingly the only option for disposal of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, reprocessing technologies that could recycle fuel while reducing the volume and toxicity of the waste have advanced.

    Government and industry experts have said recycling processes and facilities that would be sound and economical are decades away. And a repository still would be needed to hold the waste. Nevada officials who contend the Yucca site is unsuitable have said they would hope over time other disposal options could be developed.

    "While I am one of the original proponents of creating the Yucca repository, I recognize that Yucca needs to be just a component of our nuclear fuel policies," Upton said. "There is great promise in the recycling of nuclear fuel."

    In the mid-1990s, Upton sponsored a bill that would send highly radioactive spent fuel to the Nevada Test Site for interim storage until a permanent repository could be built at Yucca Mountain. A similar bill passed Congress but was vetoed by President Clinton in 2000.

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    yucca_insider wrote on February 11, 2008 08:32 AM: R. Boone, unless you have a roof full of solar panels, YOU use nuclear power, too. It comes from the western power grid.

    My point is, it's not a state-by-state issue. Power does not stop at state lines. People who look at it that way really need to get out of their closed little worlds and get their facts straight.


    Dave S wrote on February 08, 2008 01:33 PM: Even if this country adopts nuclear waste recycling, we still will need a geologic repository. Much existing waste cannot be reprocessed. And, the reprocessing process results in various radioactive waste streams that must be disposed of. Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site are ideal places for both a reprocessing facility and disposal facility. Note that the NTS already hosts two low level waste landfills.

    And, don't forget about all of the existing nuclear contaminated soil, vegetation, and water from bomb testing. Eventually, this contamination must be dealt with. Where will this contamination go? Don't believe folks who say that this contamination is not migrating!


    2zero wrote on February 08, 2008 07:17 AM: I am sure the folks in Utah feel the same way about Nevada's coal fired power plants. Maybe NPC should proposed moving from Ely to Las Vegas....perhaps the test site is a great place for coal fired power plants.


    R. Boone wrote on February 08, 2008 07:13 AM: Sure you're for the Nevada Yucca Mountain dumping ground for your nuclear waste -- just so long as it's not in your back yard! You use the nuclear power, YOU dispose of it in your own state. Makes sense to me.