Clinton And Obama Would Squash Yucca, Hanford Watchdogs Say That Isn’t So Bad

GENERAL NEWS 

By Anna King

Richland, WA  February 6, 2008 10 a.m.

The plan to store radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain could come to a full halt if either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama are elected to president.

Both Democratic candidates say they would squash the Nevada project. But what does this mean for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington?

Hanford officials have been planning to send much of the site’s highly radioactive waste to the Silver State. Richland correspondent Anna King takes a closer look at the options.

At Hanford there are hundreds of tons of nasty radioactive waste just waiting to be stored deep within Yucca Mountain. It’s a large ridge about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. But what happens if there is no Yucca?

Department of Energy officials wouldn’t comment, and they say so far there is no plan “B” on where to store the nation’s most dangerous radioactive waste.

Tom Carpenter is executive director of the government watchdog group Hanford Challenge. He says removing radioactive waste out of leaky underground tanks at Hanford is more important right now than where the waste will eventually be stored.

Tom Carpenter: "Yes we need a hole in the ground to put the waste into. But I think it’s much more urgent and important that money go into creating a vitrification facility that’s effective and safe."

Carpenter is talking about the massive plant where radioactive liquid would be made into more stable glass logs. That work’s slated to start in 2019.

DOE officials say they have the facilities to temporarily store the glass logs and fuel rods on Hanford if the Yucca project is squashed.

Hanford’s radioactive liquid waste and spent fuel rods were produced during the arms build up of World War II and the Cold War.

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