Former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who recently served on the Administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, said yesterday he was unhappy with the Department of Energy’s response to the panel’s waste disposal recommendations. “I’m disappointed that the Administration has been slow to act in implementing the BRC’s recommendations. The Commission strongly urged the Administration to take action in its Fiscal Year 2013 budget. They failed to act. They’ve created a six-month task force within DOE to review the recommendations. This does not reflect the sense of urgency that my fellow commissioners and I believe is necessary,” Domenici said in prepared remarks presented on his behalf at the National Nuclear Fuel Cycle Summit in Carlsbad, N.M. Domenici was unable to make the trip to Carlsbad because of inclement weather.
The Department is undergoing an internal review of the waste panel’s recommendations, and is scheduled to deliver a report to Congress in July outlining a nuclear waste strategy. Domenici hopes DOE will identify “concrete opportunities” by launching studies on disposing high level waste in salt, which would align with the hopes of southeast New Mexico officials for a new repository in the region’s salt deposits. “I believe that if our country is serious about timely and safe disposal of high-level waste, whether defense and/or civilian waste, we should move ahead with the necessary science to determine whether salt is a conducive medium for high-level waste disposal,” Domenici said.