New Panel Will Study Disposal of Waste

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration promised to appoint such a study group almost a year ago, after announcing that it would cease study of Yucca Mountain, a volcanic structure about 100 miles from Las Vegas that had been chosen by Congress as the leading candidate for nuclear waste disposal.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, had made killing the Yucca Mountain option a priority. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said that the commission will not consider Yucca Mountain. Dr. Chu has spoken of alternatives to the burial of nuclear waste, including new reactors that might reuse some of the waste by turning it into energy, and the commission will consider those possibilities.

NY Times