Washington (Platts)--3Dec2012/430 pm EST/2130 GMT
The new president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners said Monday the federal government needs to address the nuclear waste issue sooner, not later. "To have a dead program with money being paid into it is the wrong policy," NARUC President Philip Jones said at a press conference in Washington. In his first press conference since his election in November, Jones said the US Congress, the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission need to address how the country is going to permanently store nuclear waste "because our ratepayers are paying for it," he said. Article continues below... Request a free trial of: Nucleonics Week Since 1960, Platts Nucleonics Week has been the leading source of global news for the commercial nuclear power business. Nucleonics Week delivers analysis with a depth and sophistication simply unavailable anywhere else.
The new president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners said Monday the federal government needs to address the nuclear waste issue sooner, not later. "To have a dead program with money being paid into it is the wrong policy," NARUC President Philip Jones said at a press conference in Washington. In his first press conference since his election in November, Jones said the US Congress, the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission need to address how the country is going to permanently store nuclear waste "because our ratepayers are paying for it," he said.
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Since 1960, Platts Nucleonics Week has been the leading source of global news for the commercial nuclear power business. Nucleonics Week delivers analysis with a depth and sophistication simply unavailable anywhere else.
"The 1 mill per kilowatt-hour fee has been accumulating large amounts of money that is not being used for the purpose of disposal of nuclear waste," he said. "So they have our money and we have our waste and that is not acceptable to members of NARUC." NARUC has estimated the fee has raised $30 billion over the past 30 years. Jones, a member of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, said the association would support a legislative approach that would incorporate some of the recommendations on waste fuel storage made in 2010 by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. On another matter, Jones said the "shale gas revolution" has driven down the wholesale price of natural gas and made it more difficult for renewable energy resources to compete in the electric generation market. "The only reason my state is putting renewables into our resource mix for our utilities is because of the renewable portfolio standard," he said. The standard mandates the electric utilities generate 9% of their electricity with renewable energy by 2015. "If you put out a request for a proposal for a new generation plant, natural gas combined cycle will win hands down," he said. --Rodney White, rodney_white@platts.com --Edited by Jason Lindquist, jason_lindquist@platts.com
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