Energy Chief Stops Short of Promise on Yucca Mt.

February 20, 2009
The Associated Press - Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the Obama administration remains
opposed to the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, butstopped short of committing to kill the license application for the
site.

"The position is Yucca Mountain is not going forward, that's the
president's position," Chu told the Las Vegas Sun on Thursday. "But
it's a very complicated issue because we still have to do things that allow
that we can use nuclear as part of our energy mix."

The department submitted an application for a permit to build and
operate Yucca Mountain to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier
last year. The commission has four years to act on the proposal.

Opponents of the repository 90 miles outside Las Vegas are
pushing officials to pull the application. They fear that if the application
is approved, a future presidential administration could open the site
without undergoing the lengthy application process.

President Barack Obama promised to pull the application while
campaigning last year, but withdrawing the application may be easier
said than done.

The building of a repository at Yucca Mountain in required by the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act. As long as the law remains in effect, the
administration is open to potential legal action if it abruptly
stops the process without an alternative.

Utility companies that operate nuclear power plants across the nation
have sued the government for failing to open Yucca Mountain by the
promised 1998 start date. The waste is piling up at their plant sites.

Energy Department spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said Thursday
that "charting a path forward on alternatives to Yucca Mountain is a key
priority of Secretary Chu as he begins his tenure at the Department of
Energy. Under an Obama administration, no license application will result in a
nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain."
Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,
said the senator wants the license application pulled, "but we also realize
there's some groundwork that needs to be completed before you pull the
license application."