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U.S. government to file for license for nuclear waste dump
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department will file an application in early June with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to operate a long-delayed nuclear waste dump in Nevada, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Thursday.
The Yucca Mountain storage site, located about 90 miles
from Las Vegas, is still at least a decade away from being finished due to bureaucratic delays and scientific foul-ups. But the government still needs a license to operate the fuel dump whenever it is ready. The storage facility was supposed to open in 1998.
Bodman told reporters on Capitol Hill the department will send its license application to the NRC early next month.
Yucca Mountain is designed to store underground millions of pounds of radioactive waste from 104 U.S. nuclear power reactors along with tons of leftovers from the country's nuclear weapons program.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
