nuclear-news

Congress wants answers about nuclear waste transport through Las Vegas

Titus asks for disclosure of nuclear waste routes
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jul/10/titus-asks-for-disclosure-of-nuclear-waste/ Associated Press July 10, 2013  LAS VEGAS (AP) — A frustrated congressional representative is asking for more disclosure about a plan to route nuclear waste through Las Vegas.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., sent a letter Tuesday to the head of the federal Department of Energy asking to discuss a plan to ship 403 canisters of bomb-grade nuclear waste through her home state.

The Las Vegas Sun (http://bit.ly/130TXZE ) reports that she berated the department for failing to provide Congress with adequate information about the plan to ship the canisters from the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory in Tennessee to a Nevada National Security Site.
“Your department has yet to schedule or conduct this briefing, and has
provided no explanation for the delay or any rationale for denying a
member of Congress the ability to effectively conduct oversight
activities,” she wrote. “If you are unwilling to provide the briefing
or information, I respectfully request that you provide the legal
basis for continuing to withhold this information from Congress.”

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval wrote a similarly scolding letter to
the department in June, saying he didn’t want highly radioactive waste
of the type that could be used to build a “dirty bomb” buried in a
shallow pit at the former national nuclear proving ground north of Las
Vegas.

The department did not respond to a request for comment. Senate
Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid has backed Sandoval in his
request for more information.

Nevada and its federal elected officials have fought for more than 30
years to block federal plans to ship highly radioactive waste
currently piling up at nuclear power plants around the country to
Yucca Mountain, an ancient volcanic ridge adjacent to the nuclear test
site some 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. That proposal has been
mothballed.

The plan to bury radioactive material collected during a cleanup of
the Oak Ridge facility, called the Consolidated Edison Uranium
Solidification Project, is separate from the Yucca project.

July 11, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes