nuclear-news

All sides unhappy with Obama’s nuclear waste panel

Left and Right Pan Obama’s Panel on Nuclear Waste THE WALL STREET JOURNAL , by Stephen Power February 1, 2010, It took the Obama administration nearly a year to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to study what to do with nuclear waste piling up at power plants — and just a few hours for politicians and groups on the left and right to raise questions about the panel’s mandate and credibility.

On the right, some Republicans are questioning the need for a panel and saying the group’s recommendations won’t be taken seriously if it doesn’t consider the proposed nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said he would also object if the panel was not allowed to consider reprocessing of spent fuel………….

The Obama administration has ruled out using Yucca Mountain as a site for storing nuclear waste, as has Nevada’s political establishment, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “As the president has said many times, we’re done with Yucca; we need to be about looking at alternatives,” Carol Browner, Obama’s top aide on climate and energy issues, said Friday in announcing the panel’s line-up. And several panel members also say Yucca is off the table as far as they’re concerned.
………….Groups skeptical of nuclear power are also unhappy. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, which represents communities near U.S. nuclear weapons sites, says the commission “faces a huge credibility problem” because “it includes no one from communities downstream and downwind of major nuclear weapons sites.” Beyond Nuclear, a Takoma Park, Md.-based group that advocates abandoning nuclear power, has similar objections………
the Natural Resources Defense Council said it supports the panel’s appointment, but panned the administration’s decision to propose additional billions of dollars in loan guarantees for the nuclear power industry as “a mistake.” Similarly, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said in a statement to The Journal that he will not support the administration’s request, on the grounds that “new nuclear power plants are the most expensive to build” and that “we don’t have a place to put the nuclear waste.”

Left and Right Pan Obama’s Panel on Nuclear Waste – Washington Wire – WSJ

February 2, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, wastes