Energy Secretary nominee, Jennifer Granholm, cites consent-based siting and expresses opposition to Yucca dump
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on Jan. 27, 2021 to consider President Joe Biden's nomination of former Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm, for Energy Secretary.
During questioning by committee member Catherine Cortez Masto (Democrat-Nevada), Granholm expressed opposition to the high-level radioactive waste dump long targeted at Yucca Mountain, Nevada as an unworkable scheme.
Granholm cited the Final Report published by the Obama administration's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future in Jan. 2012, which recommended consent-based siting for permanent repositories. Nevada has long expressed its non-consent re: the Yucca dump.
Cortez Masto responded to that by asking if Granholm, and the Biden administration, would thus support the Nevada U.S. congressional delegation's "Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act" bill, which it has introduced for the past several years. The bill includes Nevada in that requirement for a state's consent, before a repository can be built and operated there. Granholm answered in the affirmative.
Although Cortez Masto did not question Granholm about the Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities targeted at Texas and New Mexico, the Energy Secretary nominee would also have to oppose them as well, since the targeted "host" states do not consent to the siting of either dump (the Texas dump is immediately upon the New Mexico border, and upstream).
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Don Hancock of Southwest Research Information Center (SRIC) in Albuquerque, NM, has extracted Granholm's answers to questions from U.S. Senators on nuclear weapons, nuclear power, and radioactive waste, during her confirmation to become President Biden's Energy Secretary.
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See Karl Grossman and Harvey Wasserman's March 3rd article in Truthout, about other Biden Cabinet members' -- including Energy Secretary Granholm's -- unfortunate and inappropriate pro-nuclear advocacy.