3rd District Congressman Jeff Duncan States Support Of The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act
(Seneca, SC)——-Recently, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy, of which 3rd District U.S. Congressman Jeff Duncan is a member.
During his time allotted to him for discussion and questioning, Congressman Duncan stated the need for Congress to pass the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act in regards to the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high level waste.
In comments made during the time allotted to Congressman Duncan during the hearing, he said that the national solution to the national problem is Yucca Mountain. The Congressman said that 121 sites around the country hold spent fuel as well as spent defense waste at the Savannah River Site.
Secretary Perry said that $8 billion dollars has been spent on Yucca Mountain while $2 million dollars has been spent per day to keep the waste at current locations where it is stored. Secretary Perry believes that Americans want a permanent repository and the law of the land is Yucca Mountain, however, the Secretary said that without the proper permitting process, that “we can’t get an answer on whether Yucca is the right place or some other place is the proper disposal site.”
Congressman Duncan then stated that he wanted to remind the committee that rate payers paid for the construction and operation fees for Yucca Mountain. According to the Congressman, that has amounted to $1.3 billion dollars in South Carolina.
Congressman Duncan said that the nuclear waste is sitting on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio and on the shores of Lake Keowee in South Carolina and in other places as well where they do not want to see anything negative happen.
Duncan reiterated before he yielded the remainder of his time back to the Chairman that Yucca Mountain is a national solution to a national problem.