Make noise over nuclear storage now

While personnel issues at Savannah River Site have been grabbing recent headlines, there are bigger issues that are still unresolved. The matter of a final repository for high-level waste from SRS and other facilities in the United States is still very much up in the air.

The use of Yucca Mountain as the ultimate storage facility is in doubt with President Barack Obama working to kill a plan that has been a quarter of a century in the making.

Billions of dollars have already been spent on Yucca Mountain over the past 25 years, and it has passed every test imaginable for long-term storage - with the exception of the political test. It seems that the power and persuasion of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is mightier than the scientific studies and the will of the entire Congress which approved the facility.

Now SRS, Hanford and Idaho Falls are facing the prospect of storing thousands of tons of the most lethal, highly radioactive material on earth in facilities that were never meant to be more than temporary holding grounds. Add to that the fuel rods from nuclear power facilities around the country and the amount of Yucca Mountain-intended material is significant.

While the federal government does not seem to mind ignoring its own requirements for removal of this material from weapons sites, the sites themselves and the states in which they lie apparently have little recourse.

When it was necessary for SRS to create a means for mixing its waste in a solution of glass and storing it in sealed stainless steel canisters, the engineers and scientists at SRS made that happen in the form of the Defense Waste Processing Facility. Hundreds of the canisters have been filled and are housed at SRS awaiting transportation to a national repository. When that might happen and where the material will go is unknown.

The South Carolina congressional delegation, along with those from Washington state, Idaho and other affected states need to begin making serious noise about this issue, and the sooner the better. We cannot afford another 25 years of wasted time, money and effort to solve a problem that has a viable solution today - but for the political gamesmanship of a few people of influence.