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Nuclear Waste: Senate Could Block Yucca Mountain Vote, Reid Says Parliamentary rules in the U.S. Senate could block Congress from making Yucca Mountain the nation’s sole high-level nuclear waste repository, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday (see GSN, Feb. 19). Under the law creating a national nuclear waste repository, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn is empowered to veto President George W. Bush’s decision to make Yucca Mountain the repository site (see GSN, Feb. 26). Guinn has promised a veto, which would require both houses of Congress to vote on the designated site within 90 days, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Under Senate rules, however, only the majority leader can bring a bill before the full Senate for a vote, Reid said. Some observers have said that Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) “can keep this from the Senate floor,” Reid said. Although Daschle has stated his opposition to the Yucca Mountain plan, the law might nonetheless force him to bring the issue to a vote, according to the Gazette-Journal. The chances of defeating the Yucca Mountain plan in Congress — if it goes to a vote — are “pretty slim,” Reid said (Doug Abrahms, Reno Gazette-Journal, March 4). Licensing Hearing Announced for Utah Spent-Fuel Site Plan Meanwhile, beginning April 8, the U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board plans to hold a license application hearing for a proposal to build a spent-fuel storage site in Skull Valley, Utah (see GSN, Jan. 25). At the hearing, the board will review evidence presented by the state of Utah and three organizations — the Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia, the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation and the Southwest Utah Wilderness Alliance — who oppose the plan by Private Fuel Storage to build the facility on the Goshute Indian reservation in Skull Valley. The board will also hear public comments on the issue (Federal Register, March 7).
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