Two House lawmakers want to form a new, independent agency that would manage a permanent home for the nation’s nuclear waste, according to a bill introduced Tuesday.
Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and August Pfluger’s (R-Texas) “Nuclear Waste Administration Act” would create an agency apart from the Department of Energy that would be charged with finding and operating a permanent nuclear waste repository in all likelihood outside of Yucca Mountain.
“The federal government has a responsibility to safely manage our nation’s nuclear waste, but we’ve been caught in an impasse for decades,” said Levin. “This legislation represents a comprehensive pathway to modernize our nuclear waste program, based in consent.”
Congress has struggled to find a suitable, long-term solution for the nation’s nuclear waste after pushback from environmentalists and Nevada lawmakers helped shelve the Yucca Mountain site.
