The recent publicly disclosed deliberations of the NRC on the matter of revising the NRC Waste Confidence Rule, in which the NRC staff has proposed eliminating the requirement of an operating geologic repository by 2025 as a conditional basis for the NRC to derive confidence that spent fuel and high-level waste can and will be [...]

The Next Yucca Mountain

Are DOE’s repository siting teams planning a visit to a town near you?

If Yucca Mountain truly is, as Secretary of Energy Steven Chu proclaims, “no longer an option” then where is the next site for our Nation’s geologic repository?

The most efficient path to identifying potential sites for a repository would be to [...]

For months now, the Department of Energy has been working to establish a Blue Ribbon Panel which will evaluate options and provide a new policy course for how we manage and ultimately dispose of our spent nuclear fuel and high level waste. Yet, the recommendations of the yet to be established Blue Ribbon Panel [...]

This week’s House Budget Committee hearing appeared finally to unmask Energy Secretary Chu’s decision that “Yucca is not an option” as both DOE and Department of Justice witnesses pitifully pleaded of being out-of-the-loop and unaware of any technical or scientific bases that would render Yucca Mountain as unsuitable as a geologic repository.  Even more disturbing [...]