Yucca Mountain Haunts Obama Administration. By Katherine Ling, Greenwire, January 11, 2010. "While President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget proposal is expected to sound a death knell for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the administration has so far failed to launch the blue-ribbon commission it promised almost a year ago to decide on a waste-disposal alternative. Hanging in the balance is 60,000 metric tons of commercial and defense nuclear waste. I find it quite disconcerting that a commission with a proper broad charter to look at this problem hasn't been created, said Arjun Makhijani, president of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research [IEER], a nonprofit opposed to nuclear power. 'I think the bigger danger is that inaction will simply lead us back to Yucca Mountain,' Makhijani said, adding, 'Leaving the problem to fester is not good.'
"Obama dramatically cut funding for the Nevada repository in his fiscal 2010 budget request and announced his intention to form a commission to chart an alternative waste-management solution. Energy Secretary Steven Chu quickly followed up, telling Congress last March that the commission would be formed 'ideally' within a month and would craft recommendations by the end of 2009. Last week, Chu responded to questions about the commission by saying the Energy Department is 'working as hard and fast as we can on that.' The lawmaker who has led opposition to the Yucca project, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), is confident that the administration's delay won't translate into a revival of the Nevada project... But despite agreements between Reid and the administration, Yucca Mountain remains -- by law -- the disposal site for U.S. nuclear waste. The DOE repository license has not been withdrawn, nor has the department moved to do so, according to an industry source. Meanwhile, Reid is facing a tough re-election battle this year. Moreover, some say that disagreement over whether the blue-ribbon panel should consider Yucca Mountain as a potential waste management solution is one reason the administration has taken so long to get the commission going. Qualified candidates, several sources say, do not agree Yucca should be taken off the table."
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