nuclear-news

USA’s Troubling Nuclear Waste Mess

The findings of the GAO, which serves as the investigative arm of Congress, complicate the Obama administration’s position on Yucca Mountain at a time when lawmakers and regulators are scrutinizing nuclear power and waste policies in the U.S…...

Nuclear waste from power plants is currently stored on-site at dozens of locations across the country. Because the law requires the U.S. government to be responsible for the waste, the government has to compensate the power plants for the cost of storing it.

Scrapping Yucca Mountain exposes U.S. to fines, By Tennille Tracy,  May 5, 2011, WASHINGTON -(MarketWatch)– The U.S. government could face fines of $75,000 a day if it fails to find a way to store or handle stockpiles of defense-related nuclear waste by 2035, according to the Government Accountability Office.

In a report released Thursday, the GAO says the Energy Department initially planned to move the waste – currently stored at locations in five states – to a repository slated for Yucca Mountain, Nev. But the Obama administration’s efforts to abandon the Yucca Mountain project leaves the department without a long-term solution, the GAO says.

If the Energy Department can not find a way to store or handle the waste in the next 24 years, it will eventually violate agreements it has with two of the states in which the waste is located.

The Energy Department says it has no intention of violating those agreements.

The findings of the GAO, which serves as the investigative arm of Congress, complicate the Obama administration’s position on Yucca Mountain at a time when lawmakers and regulators are scrutinizing nuclear power and waste policies in the U.S……

Nuclear waste from power plants is currently stored on-site at dozens of locations across the country. Because the law requires the U.S. government to be responsible for the waste, the government has to compensate the power plants for the cost of storing it.

There is also defense-related nuclear waste, resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development, managed by Energy Department. The department oversees about 13,000 metric tons of nuclear waste at locations in five states. Those states are Colorado, Idaho, New York, South Carolina, and Washington.

The potential fines cited by the GAO would come from agreements the Energy Department struck with two of those states, Colorado and Idaho, that require the department to remove the waste by 2035…..

Scrapping Yucca Mountain exposes U.S. to fines – MarketWatch

May 6, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes