(Image source: PD Fresh)
BY GEORGE DUMONTIER
ANCHOR AUSTIN KIM
You're watching multisource US video news analysis from Newsy.
75,000 metric tons of nuclear waste are being temporarily stored across the U.S.
The Department of Energy is in charge of finding a safe underground home for the waste, but Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission, which was charged with reviewing the country’s nuclear waste policies says -- step down.
According to the commission’s report, the DOE...
“...has not inspired confidence or trust in our nation’s nuclear waste management program. For this and other reasons, the Commission concludes that new institutional leadership is needed.”
The Department of Energy has lost support after their long and expensive attempt to implement a waste facility at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain was shut down earlier this year.
That venture -- cost about $10 million.
The DOE responded to the Blue Ribbon Commission’s report, saying it...
“...appreciates the hard work done by the members of the Blue Ribbon Commission, and thanks them for a very thoughtful report.”
So what does the Blue Ribbon Commission want instead of the DOE? The Chicago Tribune explains.
“Congress should create a new government-chartered corporation dedicated to managing the nation's nuclear waste, the report states, and then create several geologic disposal and interim storage facilities where nuclear waste from the country's 104 operating reactors could be consolidated and stored.”
In the meantime -- Washington state holds onto the nuclear waste indefinitely.
On Friday the state sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for breaking their promise of a Yucca Mountain storage facility. Washington Attorney General, Rob Mckenna says...
“If Yucca Mountain never opens we may be stuck here in Washington State with Large amounts of highly radioactive waste… At least a million gallons of waste may have leaked into the soil surrounding Hanford, threatening the Columbia River.” (KGW)
The Obama administration says it will not agree to a Yucca Mountain facility due to contamination issues. The potential storage site has also been criticized as being chosen for political reasons instead of scientific ones.
“Yucca Mountain ... was chosen by a consensus of Senate leaders who did not want the waste to go to their own states.”
The Nuclear Regulatory commission will ultimately decide the fate of Yucca Mountain.
Transcript by Newsy.
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