You have to wonder what they were thinking??? Aren’t commissioners/judges suppose to refrain from pre-judging legal issues that might come before them in an adjudicatory setting.

Well,it looks like the asking and responding to what was such an obvious inappropriate question has thrown a huge monkey wrench into DOE’s plan to terminate Yucca. There’s a lot of squirming going on right now at White Flint, as to no less than the NRC’s own institution integrity appears to be at stake. Stayed tuned!!!

One would have to question then after 30 years and over $10 billion invested in the Yucca Mountain project why the U.S. government would abandon the site without knowing if NRC would find it suitable, much less to “withdraw with prejudice” its license application.

With the DOE’s move to terminate Yucca Mountain now being contested in the courts and in the House of Representatives, the specter of Yucca Mountain’s imminent demise may not be so certain.

Today, there are at least four lawsuits filed to save the project. No one knows  for sure how the whole sordid mess will turn out, but one thing is for sure the Yucca story has gotten legs.

Based on over 20 years of technical and scientific studies and investigations and the expenditure of over $10 billion dollars, the Yucca Mountain repository is the embodiment of the Federal Government’s commitment under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to accept spent fuel and high-level waste from utilities and other entities and to dispose of these nuclear materials in a geologic repository.

Without Yucca Mountain, and in the absence of any credible alternative, the Federal government’s commitment to meeting its statutory and contractual obligation to accept and dispose of spent fuel and high-level waste is highly speculative. And, the recent NRC deliberations over the proposed changes to the NRC waste confidence rule demonstrates how this uncertainty can affect regulatory determinations.

Fortunately, the nuclear industry has developed safe and proven technology to store spent fuel for decades in dry cask storage which is deployed at operating nuclear plant sites. What is needed is a stable and predictable Federal government program for permanent disposal. Yucca Mountain remains the most scientifically and technically qualified repository site, and the administration would be well advised to follow the science and existing law and allow the NRC to determine whether the proposed repository would adequately protect public health and safety and the environment

The Blue Ribbon Panel will recommend research for proliferation resistant reprocessing technologies so that decades into the future we can recycle spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors. Until that time, fuel can be stored safely on site for 100 years. It will also recommend the disposal of high level waste, defense waste and spent Navy fuel in or adjacent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico.

Make no mistake; all of this is to satisfy a political deal. The Blue Ribbon Panel is only a veiled attempt to provide cover for the politicians and will provide no new scientific or technical contributions to the policy debate which has raged for almost 60 years.

Also the Blue Ribbon Commission was elevated to the level of exalted supreme scientific priesthood , Wizard of OZ , status as all questions about the future direction and form of the government’s nuclear waste management program were deferred over to this august,yet to be established,  panel requiring the total suspension of belief, judgement and common sense.

In terms of spent fuel management and disposal, the subject was hardly mentioned.  Although the Chairman did mention that the NRC should transparently communicate licensing requirements for the review of potential reprocessing or recycling applications and that the NRC should develop the regulatory infrastructure to review such applications. But the Chairman qualified that this effort should only be undertaken if the NRC is confident that it will receive an application for a reprocessing or recycling facility. And the Chairman mentioned in passing that the NRC might want ot look at moving spent fuel out of pools earlier into dry cask stoage.

During the Q/A session, a questions was asked as to what the U.S. was going to do with the nuclear waste to which the Chairman reponded that nuclear waste managent was not the the most important challenge. He continued by saying that spent fuel storage was not even close to the top of the list of issues that concern the NRC and that spent fuel could be safely stored in dry casks for several decades.