Utility panel wants reasons for planned Yucca shutdown

WASHINGTON - A board of state utility commissioners came out Tuesday against the planned Yucca Mountain Project shutdown, while calling for the Obama administration to explain in more detail why it wants to abandon the Nevada nuclear waste site.

The resolution adopted by a panel of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners would put the group on record against the administration's nuclear waste policy if it gets final approval by a board of directors later this week.

Commissioners conceded that the resolution probably would not change minds at the White House or Department of Energy, where administration officials are moving to shelve the Nevada waste storage site and have established a blue ribbon panel to start looking for alternatives.

The utility group's resolution expresses "disappointment" that the government "took 25 years and expended more than $10 billion on Yucca Mountain" only to want it closed before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could determine whether it would be safe.

"If Yucca Mountain is not an option, they certainly need to explain why that is," said Dusty Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.

Johnson also said he was troubled that the blue ribbon commission is being told not to consider Yucca Mountain in its new study.

"I just think when you have a blue ribbon panel that is supposed to find the best option and you tell them before they get started there are certain options they are not allowed to consider, that clearly is more about politics and not about policy," he said.

"Some part of me says we really need to ask, even if we are just tilting at windmills, that options not be taken off the table. Let's allow the blue ribbon panel to really look at what the right answer is."

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