Senator Reid Says Obama Won't Fund Nuclear Storage Site in Nevada

January 15, 2009

Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Plans for a national repository for spent nuclear fuel could
suffer a blow under an Obama Administration, with Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid saying the new president will cut off funding for
the proposed facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Reid, D-Nev., in a video clip posted on his congressional Web
site Wednesday, says funding for the project will face a substantial
cut in the current federal budget, while receiving "zero or very close
to it" in next year's budget.

"It's basically all through," said Reid, a leading opponent of
the project in his home state.

His comments come as the nuclear industry awaits details on how
President- elect Barack Obama will address the thorny issue of long-
term storage of nuclear waste. Obama's transition office didn't return
a call Thursday for comment.

The U.S. government had planned to begin hauling spent fuel from
the nation's nuclear power plants and burying it at Yucca more than a
decade ago. Environmental and political concerns have delayed its
opening.
Officials have said the earliest the repository could be in operation
would be 2020, assuming sufficient funding.

The storage facility is already experiencing a funding squeezed
from Congress, but a complete elimination of money would be a major
blow, said Christopher Tierney of the Kenrich Group, a Washington D.C.
consulting firm
whose focus includes the nuclear industry.

"This would be a huge development for it to be cut off entirely,"
he said.

Reid in the video clip said nuclear plants should continue to
store spent fuel on site using existing methods. The industry contends
the federal government is responsible for long-term storage of the
waste with an underground repository being the safest method.

The Bush Administration last year applied for a license for
Yucca, with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission review expected to take
at least three years. About $31 billion has been set aside for the
project, collected mostly through electricity rates.

The nuclear industry remains optimistic about its future under
the new administration, bolstered this week by comments made by Steven
Chu, Obama's nominee for energy secretary, at his confirmation
hearing, said John Keeley, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy
Institute, an industry trade group. But Keeley said the industry
awaits details on how the Obama Administration plans to address
storage.

-By Mark Peters, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4604;
[email protected]