NUCLEAR WASTE: Panel approves Yucca bill with bipartisan support

As reported by E&E. (The full article is behind a pay wall, but free trial subscriptions are available.)

The article reports:

The Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bipartisan bill yesterday afternoon that would attempt to break the nation's nuclear waste disposal logjam through a two-tiered approach that involves the controversial Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.

...Among the committee members no longer backing the bill, Rep. Doris Matsui (D- Calif.), who co-sponsored the proposal last year, warned the path for the legislation this year would be vastly different than previous votes.

"The Yucca Mountain project has been stalled for years," Matsui said. "I do not see the point of advancing a bill that faces obvious and possibly endless obstacles before it can be finalized."

Matsui offered and withdrew a substitute amendment to enter her nuclear waste bill, H.R. 3136, to authorize interim storage without the Yucca language.

Those sentiments were also echoed by Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who voted against the bill for fear that a proposed interim site in his state — opposed by him and New Mexico's governor — could turn into a de facto long-term storage site without a workable permanent disposal site.

"This is not an interim storage bill, this is a permanent storage bill," Luján said.