Is It Time To Rethink Nuclear Waste Disposal?

Ed McGaffigan, a veteran member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Monday that the Yucca Mountain program is deeply flawed and that the Nevada nuclear waste site should be scrapped.

"It may be time to stop digging, and it may be time to rethink," McGaffigan said in a critique of the Energy Department program as he prepares to retire from the five-member commission that regulates nuclear safety.

Speaking to a group of reporters, the official said the Nevada site probably could be licensed "if it had been handled properly through the years."

But he said it has been doomed by failures in Congress to correct flaws in nuclear waste laws and by Energy Department missteps, including appointment of some directors "who really weren't cut out for the job."

"I think Yucca Mountain has been beset by bad law, bad regulatory policy, bad science policy, bad personnel policy, bad budget policy throughout its history," McGaffigan said. "Every time somebody has done something to try to speed things up, it has backfired.

When has any government agency been efficient at doing anything? I agree with him though, they should stop digging. Then again, I also think they never should have started in the first place.