Ex-advocate has harsh words about Yucca

WASHINGTON — A key senator who was once a strong advocate of Yucca Mountain offered some of his harshest words yet about the proposed nuclear waste repository.

"As most of you know, it was not a good solution either on straight science, or surely, on economic grounds," Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said Tuesday in a speech to a group of U.S. and Japanese nuclear power leaders.

"So clearly, we have to move in another direction."

Domenici has long been a supporter of the nation's policy on dealing with the radioactive spent fuel from nuclear plants and U.S. defense sites: burying it in underground tunnels at Yucca Mountain.

But Domenici, a vocal advocate of nuclear power and considered the Senate leader on nuclear issues, has distanced himself from Yucca in recent public comments.

"For years Yucca Mountain was the answer, and we ran around talking about it as if it were the singular answer," Domenici said. "But we all know that it was a creature of nineteen-hundred and eighty-two.

"While Yucca was created as the final resting place, there can be no doubt that it is not the final answer."

Domenici's comments came as the Energy Department is preparing a new national nuclear waste policy that is likely to embrace recycling. While the department is now pushing for a simpler plan for Yucca, it will not abandon the project.

"Our administration is committed to successfully establishing Yucca Mountain as the nation's permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel," Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said in a speech Monday. "Solving the problem of how to store spent fuel will reap tremendous benefits for America's future and will greatly facilitate the expansion of nuclear power."

Industry observers and interested lawmakers have eagerly awaited the department's new policy for months, but it is not likely to be unveiled this year, department spokesman Craig Stevens said.

Domenici said he has heard enough about the developing policy "to know it's exciting, but I've not heard enough about it to say I'm clamoring for it."

Domenici has not publicly advocated that long-delayed Yucca program be scrapped. He has said he envisions a new, broader national nuclear waste policy in which Yucca Mountain plays some role.

"In this environment, the current U.S. policy regarding Yucca Mountain clearly won't do," Domenici said. "And it won't do all by itself. I believe we must completely re-evaluate our policy on spent nuclear fuel."