Craig Blocks Filibuster Of N-Waste Bill Discussion Will Continue About Transfer Of Spent Fuel

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig won a small victory Tuesday on his controversial nuclear waste storage bill by blocking a Nevada-led filibuster.

The Senate cut off a threatened filibuster on a 65-34 vote, with both Washington state senators joining Craig and fellow Republican Dirk Kempthorne.

“It was a good policy vote and it was good politics, and I think that’s exactly what we’ve tried to combine in this legislation,” Craig said.

The bill calls for the transfer of spent nuclear fuel from commercial and defense reactors across the country to a single temporary site in Yucca Mountain, Nev.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she voted to block the filibuster to keep discussion going and find a legislative solution.

The problem of storing nuclear waste is a significant concern in Washington state, the home of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, but Murray said she is not certain whether she will vote for the bill.

“I am concerned about some of the language in the bill as it is coming to us, but I am convinced that it is a critical issue as to where we are going to put both a temporary and permanent site,” she said.

Dave Larkin, a spokesman for the Washington Public Power Supply System, said storage facilities at the system’s Hanford nuclear plant are not yet at capacity.

If Craig’s bill becomes law, shipments of WPPSS nuclear waste to Nevada would start in 2007, Larkin estimated.

White House chief of staff Leon Panetta warned Senate leaders in a letter Monday the bill would be vetoed in its present form.

Building a temporary facility would detract from the goal of finding and developing a permanent storage facility for high-level nuclear waste, he said.

Craig feels confident he can get the 67 votes to override a veto.

“I’m sorry that the White House has been reduced to politics on this because their department has worked very hard to keep this project on line and on target,” Craig said.

Critics said the government is indeed on track to establishing a sound nuclear-waste strategy, a long and difficult process. But there is no urgent need for a temporary storage site, they argued.

“The nuclear industry wants to short-circuit and shortcut the process that has been ongoing for years,” said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Nuclear waste will remain at these reactors for as long as there are reactors, and those senators who think it will get nuclear waste out of their backyard are wrong.”

The bill received strong criticism from the environmental community as well.

“A temporary site is not going to have the regulation, the engineering or the planning of a long-term permanent repository,” said Michael Grynberg of Public Citizen, an environmental interest group. “We’re not saying don’t ever move the waste, but if you are going to do it, let’s do it right and let’s only do it once.”

, DataTimes