WASHINGTON (AP) ? A presidential commission says the United States must immediately start looking for an alternative to replace the failed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada that cost an estimated $15 billion but was never built.
The report says the government also must prepare for the eventual large-scale transportation of spent nuclear fuel from storage sites across the country to the new site ? or to interim storage facilities yet to be built.
The 15-member panel says the U.S. urgently needs a new strategy on nuclear waste. The battle over the Yucca Mountain site 90 miles outside Las Vegas has dragged on for three decades. The Obama administration canceled the project and cut off funding for it.
The commission says local support for any nuclear storage site is crucial.