Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
6/6/2014
The Mississippi Public Service Commission passed a resolution this week calling on the Department of Energy to stop considering the state for any high-level waste disposal. The resolution stems from comments made by Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons that listed Mississippi as one of the potential locations that have expressed interest in hosting an interim storage facility, as outlined in DOE’s high-level waste strategy. The Commission cited the state’s long-time opposition to hosting nuclear waste, as well as the Nuclear Waste Policy Act’s commitment to the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada as the designated location for a repository, as justification for the resolution. “Resolved, that the Mississippi Public Service Commission urges the Mississippi Congressional delegation, collectively on behalf of Mississippi ratepayers, to advocate for and pursue the Yucca Mountain site as provided by the NWPA; be it further resolved, that the Commission hereby goes on record to request and implore the U.S. Secretary of Energy to immediately, without any further delay, comply with the NWPA, which designates Yucca Mountain, Nevada as the national repository for civilian nuclear waste and cease consideration of other sites, particularly and specifically Mississippi, whose citizens we represent have declared, through law and policy, opposition to the siting of a radioactive waste repository in Mississippi,” the resolution said.
The Commission, made up of three members, passed the resolution unanimously, with two of the three saying the now-shuttered Yucca Mountain project motivated their vote. Commissioner Brandon Presley introduced the resolution at last month’s meeting, and has been the main driver of the vote. “I was proud to sponsor these resolutions that clearly say ‘no’ to the plans of the U.S. Department of Energy and others to make Mississippi the nation’s nuclear waste dump,” Presley said in statement. “Mississippians have paid $80 million to send nuclear waste to Nevada, and that’s where it should go, period. I am shocked that the Department of Energy recently said that they have continued a dialogue with officials in Mississippi related to this absurd idea.” Commissioner Steven Renfroe, who had wanted more time to consider the vote at last month’s meeting, offered a similar statement. “As a country, we have a site that has already been developed,” he told RW Monitor. “Why would we change what we already have put so much time and money into?”
Mississippi has been considering whether or not it wants to host a potential interim storage facility, as laid out in DOE’s nuclear waste strategy. Representatives from the Mississippi Energy Institute last year made a pitch to the state Senate’s Senate Economic Development Committee on the potential benefits of locating an interim spent nuclear fuel storage site. In a white paper presented to the committee, the MEI highlighted the state’s “unique” geological salt domes as a possible safe location for storage. “The demonstrated failure of the Federal government over three decades requires a thorough re-assessment of our approach to used nuclear fuel management, and provides an opportunity for the State of Mississippi to structure a consent-based host agreement that delivers significant economic development, employment, and energy security benefits,” the white paper said.
