7 States Studied as Possible Site for Nuclear Vault
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WASHINGTON — The Energy Department on Thursday selected seven states as possible locations for a second vault to store highly radioactive nuclear waste for 10,000 years.
A dozen candidate sites were chosen in Georgia, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The selection set off immediate protests from governors and other officials of most of the seven states.
Congress in 1982 directed the Energy Department to plan for two underground repositories for an expected 154,000 tons of spent reactor fuel, weapons waste and other highly radioactive material.
Only one site actually has been authorized by Congress, which would have to approve a second. DOE earlier chose a salt formation in Texas, a basalt formation in Washington state and a tuff formation in Nevada as finalists for the first repository.
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