NATION : U.S. Seeks Nuclear Waste Site
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WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary James Watkins said today that the government must find a volunteer site for a temporary nuclear waste dump within two years to avert a potential storage crisis at 27 nuclear plants by 1998.
Watkins, testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the 27 plants will run out of on-site storage space for highly radioactive spent reactor fuel if the Energy Department does not meet a Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin accepting waste shipments for disposal.
He said the only way his agency can meet that legally required deadline is to persuade a state or Indian tribe within two years to volunteer a site for a “monitored, retrievable storage” facility.
Watkins said siting an “MRS facility” was essential because the department will not be able to open its planned permanent dump site in Nevada until the year 2010 at the earliest.
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