Two years after President Barack Obama ordered the nation’s only long-term nuclear waste site to be closed, the president’s commissioned panel to find a solutions for nuclear waste has recommended the immediate development of a permanent storage site.
Connecticut is currently storing 1,920 metric tons of spent uranium at two temporary sites in Waterford and Haddam, from the states’ nuclear reactors. Currently, the used fuel has no permanent home, even though Connecticut ratepayers have spent $390 million to develop such a site.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future on Friday issued its draft report recommending what the nation should do with nuclear uranium after reactors finish using the fuel. The final report is due in January, and the commission is accepting public comments on the draft report through October.
The commission was formed after Obama stopped the development of the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada, which has been in development since the late 1980s as the nation’s permanent storage site for nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain never accepted any waste, and nuclear power plants such as Connecticut Yankee in Haddam and Millstone Power Station in Waterford have been forced to store their spent uranium in temporary containers near their reactors.
In its draft report issued Friday, the commission recommended the country immediately develop an interim storage facility to consolidate the nuclear waste from around the country while a permanent storage facility is developed. Nuclear storage should be overseen by a new agency funded by the money ratepayers give for nuclear storage each year; in Connecticut, ratepayers contribute $8 million annually to this cause.
The commission did not recommend any specific sites for storage, as Obama explicitly told the commission it was not allowed to explore Yucca Mountain or any other location as potential sites. The commission instead said cities and towns should volunteer as the permanent storage sites.
