The US government has wasted at least $38 billion of taxpayers�™ money on the nation�™s nuclear waste because of its decades of dithering about how to handle the radioactive leftovers sitting at dozens of sites in 38 states, a report says.
Critics say the final price will be higher unless the government starts collecting the waste by 2020.
Politico reported Saturday that the government spent $15 billion on a controversial nuclear waste repository at Nevada�™s Yucca Mountain until the Obama administration scrapped the project. It will have to pay $23 billion more as the damages to nuclear power utilities, which for the past 30 years have paid a fee to DOE on the promise that the feds would begin collecting their waste in 1998, the report added.
People in the Industry say the damages could be as much as $65 billion, including the money spent on Yucca.
Due to the lack of a final resting place for the waste, each US nuclear plan has to stockpile its own, causing thousands of tons of waste to be stranded at dozens of sites across the country, the report said.
The US waste program has �œplainly broken down” and the government has made �œno discernible progress towards its commitments,” said Salo Zelermyer, a former DOE attorney.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz also called the system of storing nuclear waste at reactors sites �œpolitically unsustainable.”
�œFor nuclear energy to be competitive here in the US and ensure its safety and security abroad, we have to address the problem of disposition of used nuclear fuel and high-level waste,” Moniz said. But he added that Yucca Mountain is not �œa workable option.”
Congress chose the Nevada site in 1987 as the country�™s sole permanent nuclear repository.
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Source: Press TV