The U.S. Energy Department will tell Congress in the coming weeks it should begin looking for a second permanent site to bury nuclear waste or approve a large expansion of the proposed waste repository under a
mountain in the Nevada desert, the Associated Press reported.
Edward Sproat, head of the department's civilian nuclear waste program, said Thursday the 77,000-ton limit Congress put on the capacity of the proposed Yucca waste dump will fall far short of what will be needed and has to be expanded. He said that if not, another dump must be built elsewhere in the country.
President-elect Barack Obama has said he does not believe the site 90 miles ( 145 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas is suitable for keeping highly radioactive used reactor fuel up to a million years and believes other options should be explored.