Nuclear Dump Dominates NRC Chief’s First Trip to Congress
The new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Congress the U.S. needs a permanent site to store radioactive waste and declined to back Republican lawmakers who sought to restart the Yucca Mountain project.

While Allison Macfarlane reiterated that picking a site wasn’t an NRC task, she said cash remains available to evaluate Yucca. She estimated the U.S. has spent $8 billion on the project. House Republicans, who were asking about the slow pace of work, put the cost at $15 billion.

“No matter whether you go direct disposal of spent fuel or you recycle,” Macfarlane, in office for two weeks, said today at a hearing of two panels of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, “you will need a final repository.”
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