Congress must push back
Published 4:56 pm Friday, July 9, 2010
For all the talk of change on the campaign trail, the Obama administration is playing politics as usual when it comes to disposing of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste.
The stakes are high for our state, which houses the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the 53 million gallons of nuclear waste that sits there in aging underground tanks, many of which are leaking. They are remnants of plutonium that was produced there for use in nuclear weapons between 1944 and 1989. All that waste needs a permanent, secure disposal site.
Congress chose Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the leading candidate for a national nuclear repository way back in 1982. It has reiterated that choice several times, and about $10 billion has been spent preparing it.
Earlier this year, though, the Department of Energy unilaterally pulled the plug on Yucca, permanently withdrawing the federal licensing application and budgeting no money to keep the project going. Politics, not safety nor environmental concerns, were the reason. Obama had pledged to close Yucca, reportedly in order to win delegates from Nevada during the 2008 campaign.
So much for Obama’s high-minded pronouncements that science would rule in such decisions.
Washington and South Carolina, which also has big stockpiles of nuclear waste, sued. Two weeks ago, a panel of administrative judges for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission blocked the administration’s action, ruling that it lacked the authority to overturn an act of Congress. Now the commission, a majority of whom are on record opposing Yucca, has asserted jurisdiction in the case.
It’s time for Congress to act. Last week, a bipartisan coalition of 91 senators and representatives wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu urging an about-face. Any response short of that should be met with legislation forcing the administration’s hand.
Obama has said that nuclear power must be part of the solution if the nation is to seriously reduce carbon emissions. He has the Energy Department pursuing new strategies for dealing with radioactive waste, including recycling spent nuclear fuel. Even if that succeeds, however, at least one nuclear repository will still be necessary.
Site selection is obviously a political hot potato. Congress moved past that problem when it chose Yucca 28 years ago, and only safety considerations, not blatantly political ones, should be able to change that decision.
The 91 members of Congress who signed the letter to Chu, led by Washington Sen. Patty Murray, sound like they’re not in a mood to be pushed around on this issue. They’ll likely have to prove it by pushing back.
