Plan seeks temporary sites for nuclear waste storage

WASHINGTON -- A bill that has been prepared in the Senate envisions two temporary storage sites for nuclear waste -- one in the East and one in the West -- as a precursor to recycling highly radioactive reactor fuel rather than sending it to Yucca Mountain.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told reporters Wednesday he soon will introduce a bill that would redirect the nation's nuclear waste management strategy.

"We have been working at (Yucca Mountain) for 15 to 16 years, and we are nowhere," Domenici said, referring to the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The bill would not end the Yucca Mountain program but could change its mission.

With eight months remaining in an election-year session, Congress completing such a far-reaching bill this year might be a long shot, but it could set the table for debate next year.

Congress passed legislation in 1982 to pursue underground disposal of highly radioactive material, but delays in carrying out that strategy have prompted the nuclear industry and some like-minded lawmakers to pursue other choices.

The new bill would authorize the Department of Energy to enter into contracts with private groups to store nuclear waste at two interim sites while reprocessing plants were licensed and built to pull more energy from used nuclear fuel rods.

Communities would qualify for federal benefits as incentives to accept the waste and store it in above-ground casks.

As for reprocessing factories, the government and private industry would split 50-50 the costs for designs and licensing, and the private partner would pay for construction.

A Domenici aide said the bill will call for a "single-digit" percentage to be redirected from a $20 billion Yucca Mountain construction account into the reprocessing initiative.

Communities hosting the reprocessing plants would not be offered federal incentives because jobs and other economic benefits would accrue from construction and operations, the senator's aide said.

Domenici said he assumes Yucca Mountain will continue to be funded at low levels as the Energy Department pursues a construction license.

Domenici is retiring this year and said several other senators have expressed interest in pursuing the proposal after he leaves.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade association, has launched efforts to recruit host sites to store nuclear waste.

If spent fuel were diverted into reprocessing, Domenici has said previously, Yucca Mountain could wind up the destination for nuclear waste generated by the military that cannot be reprocessed. He said waste emerging from reprocessing would be less toxic and could be stored in underground salt formations like those found in New Mexico.

Domenici said he outlined his thinking several months ago to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a foe of Yucca Mountain and the Senate majority leader.

"Sen. Reid appreciates Sen. Domenici's efforts to look for alternatives to Yucca," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said in an e-mail. But, he said, to win Reid's support, "any plan to deal with the nation's nuclear waste must kill the dump altogether."

Domenici said if support existed in Congress to stop funding the Yucca program, "we could shut that faucet off."

But, he said, "a lot of Republicans think Yucca is great. I don't know why it is great. You put the stuff in, you have to take it all out (to be reprocessed), and you have to build two more if that is your repository, so why not do reprocessing?"

At the rate that nuclear waste is being generated by utilities, Yucca Mountain might reach its 70,000 metric ton capacity before or soon after it can be built.

The Energy Department is preparing a report on whether more repositories would be needed or whether the Yucca repository might be expanded.

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