chimpy pushes to open nuke waste dump

proving once again that the public's safety is the last thing on the minds of the nuke proponents. all they care about is getting thru the "regulatory hurdles" as fast as possible. but SAFETY CANNOT BE RUSHED.


W. House to send Congress nuke storage legislation
Tue Apr 4, 1:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will send to Congress on Wednesday a legislative proposal designed to hasten the opening of the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said.

Bodman said the proposed legislation "will speed the process of opening the Yucca Mountain repository and make it an even more valuable national asset once it is up and running."

The contentious storage site is designed to hold the thousands of tons of spent fuel and other radioactive waste now at nuclear power plants around the country.

"The bill we are sending to Congress represents a serious effort on our part to remove a number of legal and regulatory barriers that we believe stand in the way of making timely progress toward completing and opening the Yucca Mountain repository," Bodman said.

Bodman announced the legislative proposal in a speech to the United States Energy Association's annual meeting.

Talking later with reporters, Bodman provided few details on the legislation. He refused to say for example when, or how much sooner, the legislation calls for opening the storage site.

But he did divulge that the measure did not seek to give the Energy Department the authority to open an interim above-ground storage site for the nuclear waste until the permanent Yucca Mountain site was ready.

The Energy Department was scheduled to hold a briefing with reporters on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the legislation.