Science:
A White House commission on spent nuclear fuel released draft
recommendations that include a call for one or more new
above-ground storage sites, writes Eli Kintisch for
Science. The commission was formed last year by
President Barack Obama after the White House's 2009 decision to
cancel plans for a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain,
Nevada. There, spent fuel would have cooled for several decades
before being permanently entombed onsite. The draft
recommendations suggest a process involving separate sites for
each step. New interim sites would first receive fuel that's
currently stored in above-ground concrete casks at nine
decommissioned US plants. Fuel at working reactors would be
transferred next. The commission also called for the creation
of an entity separate from federal agencies to manage the
long-term disposal sites. The final version of the report will
be released in January 2012.
