US panel suggests moving used nuclear fuel to interim sites

Science : A White House commission on spent nuclear fuel released draft recommendations that include a call for one or more new above-ground storage sites, writes Eli Kintisch for Science. The commission was formed last year by President Barack Obama after the White House’s 2009 decision to cancel plans for a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. There, spent fuel would have cooled for several decades before being permanently entombed onsite. The draft recommendations suggest a process involving separate sites for each step. New interim sites would first receive fuel that’s currently stored in above-ground concrete casks at nine decommissioned US plants. Fuel at working reactors would be transferred next. The commission also called for the creation of an entity separate from federal agencies to manage the long-term disposal sites. The final version of the report will be released in January 2012.