LYONS POINTS TO LEGISLATIVE ACTION FOR BRC RECOMMENDATIONS

Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons highlighted the need for legislative progress on the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future’s recommendations for the disposal of radioactive waste in remarks to reporters at the American Nuclear Society’s Winter Meeting yesterday. “We need something to move before we have the legislative authority to move ahead with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission,” he said. “I think we have a fabulous opportunity now to really make progress. In some cases, it’s local communities, and in some cases, it’s a few state officials, but there are a number of expressions of interest—primarily from communities in several states with New Mexico and Texas the most visible, but Mississippi has also been having fairly public discussions, and there’s at least one other state that has talked to us that doesn’t want their named mentioned yet and NEI tells me there are still more states they have talked to that also expressed interest,” he said. Lyons also reiterated Secretary of Energy Eernest Moniz’s statement that DOE would welcome progress on S1240, a bill introduced earlier this year in the Senate with bi-partisan support that would implement many of the BRC’s recommendations.