nuclear-news

the only sane thing is to stop making the stuff!

Energy Week Ahead: NRC’s Chief to Testify on Nuclear-Waste Plans Bloomberg, By Brian Wingfield – Sep 8, 2013   Congress returns from a five-week recess to take up several perennial issues: turmoil in the Middle East, rising government debt and where to dump more than 65,000 tons of waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane and Peter Lyons, the Energy Department’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, testify tomorrow at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on the waste issue.

While U.S. lawmakers were away from Washington, a federal appeals court on Aug. 13 ruled the NRC is “flouting the law” by not completing its safety review for a dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The agency, which stopped work after President Barack Obama’s administration killed funding for Yucca in 2010, is reviewing options on the matter through Sept. 30.

Now lawmakers just have to agree on a place to dispose of the spent-fuel rods, a debate that has been underway since at least President Ronald Reagan’s first term, when he signed a law to set up a permanent repository. For now, the material is stored at about 75 operating and closed nuclear plants……. The nation’s backlog of commercial nuclear waste is rising so high, even Yucca Mountain won’t be able to hold it all, a independent commission established by Obama reported last year. …..http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-09/energy-week-ahead-nrc-s-chief-to-testify-on-nuclear-waste-plans.html