Decade
of Resistance 
shundahai@shundahai.org
Shundahai Network
Dedicated to Breaking
the Nuclear Chain
Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"
April 4, 2006
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Key Senator Pushes Bush Administration on Yucca Mountain Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - A key senator said Thursday that he'll likely introduce his own bill if the Bush administration doesn't soon unveil much-anticipated legislation to smooth development of a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada. Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he's repeatedly offered to carry the administration bill, which has been promised for months. The legislation is expected to guarantee a source of funding for the Yucca Mountain project and address other problems that have hampered development of a permanent, underground repository for highly radioactive waste. "We must see what it is," Domenici said at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water, which he chairs. "If something doesn't arrive soon, I will very likely introduce my own bill," his written testimony said. After the hearing Domenici refused to say what might be in his bill. Other proposals said to be under consideration for the administration's legislation would withdraw public land around the property to create a permanent site for the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas and expand its capacity beyond 77,000 tons. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in early March that the bill would be done within the month. Yucca Mountain was approved by Congress in 2002 to hold the nation's nuclear waste but has been delayed by political opposition - including from home-state Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. - controversies over quality controls and a court-ordered rewrite of radiation protection standards. It's now not expected to open until after 2012, and some lawmakers are increasingly irritated over the delays. Paul Golan, acting director of the Energy Department office that oversees Yucca Mountain, declined after the hearing to offer more details on timing or content of the bill. Domenici also said that given the delays, the administration's 2007 budget request for Yucca Mountain - $544 million - was too high. But he said he'd push to meet the administration's $250 million request for a program to resume commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing. Some House members have voiced concerns that reprocessing might shift the focus away from storage at Yucca Mountain. Reid said at the hearing that the Energy Department should accept that the dump project isn't going forward and instead focus on keeping nuclear waste in dry casks at the reactor sites where it's now collecting. He and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have offered legislation to do that. "It is time we addressed the problem at hand - the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel - and stopped pouring taxpayers' money down the drain on a project that could endanger all of our citizens," said Reid, the top Democrat on the spending subcommittee. --
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