nuclear-news

USA Senate Bill to set up temporary nuclear waste storage sites

The legislation comes amid increased frustration by Republicans and some Democrats over the Obama administration’s decision to abandon Yucca Mountain, a proposed nuclear waste repository designated by Congress that has been mired by years of delay.

“This proposal addresses one of the most glaring failures of our national nuclear policy — what to do with the used nuclear fuel currently that is currently being stored at over 100 sites across the country,” Murkowski said in a statement Friday.

The lawmakers say the legislation is intended to end a series of lawsuits filed by utilities because the federal government has yet to establish a permanent waste repository. The lawsuits could cost the federal government billions of dollars. ….

The storage of spent nuclear fuel has come under increased scrutiny in the aftermath of the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has raised questions about the way spent fuel is stored in light of issues at the spent fuel pools at the Japanese plant. In the United States, spent fuel rods are placed in pools for several years and then moved into dry cask storage.

“It is clear that we lack a comprehensive national policy to address the nuclear fuel cycle,” Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water subcommittee, said earlier this year.

A recent NRC inspector general report said the commission does not have an adequate system in place for the inspection of nuclear spent fuel storage sites…..

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/169411-senators-float-bill-to-create-interim-nuclear-spent-fuel-storage-sites

July 3, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes