Lack Of Cleanup Plan Could Sideline Nuclear Waste Panel, Activists Warn

摘要

Recent reports that EPA and other agencies are struggling to determine who would oversee cleanup in the event a major nuclear power plant accident dispersed radiation offsite could overshadow the efforts of a presidential commission intended to devise a strategy for managing the plants' radioactive waste, anti-nuclear activists are warning. The activists say the agencies' lack of a cleanup plan raises doubts about the government's ability to oversee other aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, making efforts to address the waste issue an "intellectual exercise at best." President Obama ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future in January after his administration announced it would not support continued efforts to construct a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV. The panel is charged with recommending alternatives to managing high level radioactive waste - long seen as a key obstacle to the expansion of nuclear power.