A group of scientists with decades of experience consulting for the federal government on Monday sent a letter to energy secretary nominee Rick Perry, urging the Energy Department to complete the Yucca Mountain licensing process.
The Sustainable Fuel Cycle Task Force Science Panel, a five-member board that includes scientists from DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories, urged the former Texas governor and DOE to re-establish the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management; strike a “mutually beneficial” partnership with Nevada as the host state for Yucca Mountain; and iron out long-term “legislative enhancements” to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to include consolidated interim storage of nuclear waste. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 was amended and designated Yucca Mountain as the site for a national repository for commercial spent fuel and defense nuclear waste.
“Saddling our children and grandchildren with spent nuclear fuel in dozens of temporary storage locations across the country adjacent to our rivers, lakes, and seashores along with seemingly endless financial liabilities for engineered storage is not what they deserve from us,” the group wrote. “We need to act and the time is now.”
DOE withdrew its Yucca Mountain license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2010, following cancellation orders from the Obama administration. Issue followers believe the Trump administration plans to restart the licensing process, while project opponents in Nevada are preparing to defend some 300 legal contentions that remain against the repository.
