Panel makes nuclear waste recommendations

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WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- A commission studying alternatives to plans for a nuclear waste repository in Nevada will recommend at least one new site, sources told The Washington Post.

The commission, set up by President Obama in January 2010, will urge setting up a new site to store waste from U.S. nuclear power plants, the Post reported Thursday.

The commission is not suggesting where that site should be located, the Post said.

Many commission members reportedly believe New Mexico, already the site of a nuclear waste storage facility, might be more willing than Nevada to accept a federal waste facility.

An interim storage site for waste now being stored from 10 closed reactors at nine different sites should be found, the commission said.

The 15-member commission, chaired by former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, was created by Obama after his administration decided not to pursue long-delayed plans to create a national nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain.

Opponents of the Yucca site have cited possible corrosion concerns, water contamination and earthquake hazards.