|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Terrorism Study of Nuclear Waste Site Scrapped
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) threatened to block energy legislation being considered in the Senate if Hatch did not drop an amendment requiring a terrorism threat assessment of a planned nuclear waste site in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported today (see GSN, May 26). Hatch’s amendment would have required the assessment before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could give Private Fuel Storage a license to store 44,000 tons of nuclear waste in the Utah desert. Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) asked Hatch to drop the amendment when he learned that Reid planned to block the bill, according to the Tribune. “I had the chairmen of both (the House and Senate committees) working with me, and Senator Reid misconstrued it and promised to stop the entire energy bill if that amendment was attached to it,” Hatch said. However, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said the senator did not threaten to torpedo the bill, but was concerned that the amendment could prompt other amendments regarding the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada. Reid is opposed to the planned facility. “It could have opened up a can of worms as far as nuclear waste issues go,” Hafen said. “His concern has always been about how the waste would be transported, so that's a concern of his, but it needs to be approached the right way. He just didn't feel that's the right way to do it” (Robert Gehrke, Salt Lake Tribune, July 27).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
