Nuclear panel says work should start now to find waste sites

WASHINGTON -- While it could take years for Congress to set the nation on a new path for managing nuclear waste, work could start immediately to identify and recruit new locations for a burial site, a study official said Tuesday.

"There are lots going on that can be done under current law," said Phil Sharp, a former member of Congress from Indiana. He briefed a nuclear industry audience on the study commission that last week recommended new strategies for managing spent nuclear fuel.

Sharp said it remains to be seen what will happen to the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.

"These are tough policy changes that (we) are asking Congress to make," he said. "The point is we recognize it is not going to happen over the next month."

But he said there is nothing to stop the government from gathering information on potential locations and from soliciting states and communities. The study group recommended a "consent-based" approach that envisions partnership in developing a nuclear waste site.

"State government and local communities simply have to be engaged in this decision," Sharp said at a conference of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. "You cannot really jam it down the throat of one state. We tried that, and it was not taken well."

The commission by design did not pass judgment on the suitability of Yucca Mountain in Nevada, where state resistance led President Barack Obama to end funding and fence off the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Sharp said Yucca Mountain still could play some role if Nevada changed its mind.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Sharp said that despite the Nevada experience, he thought it possible to recruit a willing host for a high-level nuclear waste repository.

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the New Mexico storage caverns for forms of defense nuclear waste, has been declared a success and is a "real world example we did not have before to show people," said Sharp, who is president of Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan think tank.

Also, he said he thought there is no longer a sense of public mistrust dating to when the hazards of nuclear weapons testing and development were kept secret from residents of Nevada, Utah and other Western states.

"We have gotten beyond some of the worst of the government activities," he said.

"I also think people are beginning to understand that (a repository) has real economic value to a local community," Sharp said. "This is not just jobs. This is investment, this is scientific knowledge being brought to bear. There are a lot of positives."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.