U.S. House passes nuclear waste bill

March 22, 2000
Web posted at: 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House on Wednesday passed legislation to store the nation's hazardous nuclear waste from commercial power plants in the Nevada desert by decade's end, but the measure faces an almost assured veto by President Clinton.

With a vote of 253 to 167, the House approved the plan to construct a waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., as early as 2007. A similar bill overwhelmingly passed the Senate last month, but fell three votes short of a veto-proof majority.

The Clinton administration and House Democratic leaders objected to provisions negating language in the bill to have the Department of Energy (DOE) take ownership of the spent fuel in the years before a repository is built.

The White House also was not satisfied with the final draft language on delaying, until 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency's right to set radiation exposure limits.

The DOE still must give final approval to Yucca Mountain as the permanent site for the commercial waste, which would also house some radioactive material from Defense Department programs.

A departmental recommendation is due by 2001.

Environmentalists believe Yucca Mountain is unsafe, citing concerns the area lies on a geographic fault line, that ground water seepage has occurred where the repository would be built and transportation of waste would threaten nearby Las Vegas.

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