Washington (Platts)--31Jan2012/345 pm EST/2045 GMT
Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday said that the United States will likely need more than one permanent repository for commercial nuclear fuel waste, even after a decades-long battle killed plans for a single repository site long-planned for Nevada. The comment came in the wake of a final report last week from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, which was set up by Chu to examine what to do with spent nuclear fuel now languishing at commercial nuclear power plants around the country. "You need several, in all probability, you need several repositories," Chu said during a meeting of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. Chu put together the 13-member SEAB in 2010, and it includes scientists, business leaders, university professors and former government officials. Siting just one nuclear waste repository has been a struggle for the federal government. President Barack Obama terminated the controversial Yucca Mountain repository project in Nevada after more than 25 years in development. Siting it in the state has drawn massive local opposition, notably from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Brent Scowcroft, the co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission, outlined for the board the conclusions of his commission, which called for the Obama administration to take immediate action to set up one or more temporary storage sites to take spent fuel from nuclear plants. It also called for action to develop a consent-based approach for siting one or more permanent repositories for the waste. Scowcroft also said that despite the fact that the commission's mandate expired with the report's publication, the members would continue to advocate for the panel's braod range of recommendations to be carried out. "We are committed to seeing action taken on the recommendations, because we believe it is long past time for the government to make good on its committments," Scowcroft said. "So while our commission is formally at an end now, [co-chair Lee Hamilton] and I, and our fellow commissioners will now devote ourselves to see that action is taken. Hamilton and Scowcroft are scheduled to testify about the report on Wedneday at the House Energy and Commerce Committee and on Thursday at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.--Derek Sands, derek_sands@platts.com