And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Source: http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990616/V000041-061699-idx.html ====================================================== Panel OKs Nuke-Waste Storage Plan By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press, June 16, 1999 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans on Wednesday took a major step toward compromising with the Clinton administration over the disposal of commercial nuclear waste, abandoning their demands for a temporary storage site in Nevada. Instead, legislation that would keep the waste at nuclear reactors in 34 states, with the federal government taking ownership of the waste, cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee by a 14-6 vote. All 11 Republican members of the panel voted for the measure, which now awaits Senate floor action. While the Clinton administration has not fully embraced the bill, it marked a possible breakthrough in the five-year controversy over the government's refusal to assume responsibility for more than 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste kept at nuclear reactors. ``This is a major concession,'' said Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, who proposed the compromise. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in February offered a similar approach, with the government taking title of waste at reactors, but there remain disagreements over the establishment of radiation health standards in a future waste disposal site. Over the past five years, supporters of a nuclear waste bill have repeatedly been stymied in attempts to enact legislation that would establish a temporary central storage site for nuclear waste in Nevada until a permanent burial site is approved and built in the state's Yucca Mountain area. The industry has argued that the government was committed to taking the waste and finding a temporary site. But President Clinton has insisted an interim storage site, proposed for Nevada, would interfere in development of the permanent underground Yucca facility. In an attempt to break the deadlock, Murkowski on Wednesday offered his compromise. Under the proposal, the waste would remain where it is, but the government would officially have custody of it until the construction permit for the Yucca facility is issued, possibly as early as 2007. In turn, utilities would drop lawsuits against the Energy Department for failing to take the waste. But Murkowski acknowledged some hurdles remain. Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, the ranking Democrat on the committee, opposed the compromise -- along with five other Democrats -- because they said it would strip the Environmental Protection Agency of authority to regulate radiation exposure levels at the future Yucca waste site. ``That's a show stopper with the administration and with me,'' said Bingaman. He sought approval for a virtually identical alternative measure that would continue to have the EPA regulate exposure levels, but it was voted down 13-7. Murkowski's proposal calls on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to set radiation exposure standards. The EPA traditionally has pushed for more stringent standards, including a groundwater-protection requirement that the nuclear industry claims is impossible to meet. ``We need standards that are achievable,'' Murkowski said. Murkowski said the EPA wants to limit the release of radiation from the future Yucca site to comply with the federal drinking water law. Such a strict level is not appropriate for groundwater in the Nevada desert ``in an area that has had extensive nuclear testing,'' argued Murkowski. He said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was more in tune with establishing ``reasonable'' standards for the future disposal site that would hold thousands of tons of highly radioactive wastes -- mostly used reactor fuel -- from the more than 100 civilian reactors as well as defense-related waste. Bingaman, who has conferred with the Energy Department on the issue, said the administration likely would veto legislation that ``would strip the EPA of authority in this matter.'' An Energy Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the removal of the EPA from setting the radiation standard was ``a killer issue'' yet to be resolved. Still, this official said, the compromise reflects significant progress because the interim-storage idea is being dropped. Murkowski too said his proposal mirrors what the administration had proposed with only one controversy remaining: whether the NRC or the EPA should have set the radiation exposure standards. Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
