Ploughshares Fund board member Chuck Hagel [2], who represented the state of Nebraska in the U.S. Senate, was appointed by President Obama to a panel studying the problems of nuclear waste storage, processing and disposal. The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future [3], chaired by former Representative Lee Hamilton (D-IN) and longtime presidential advisor Brent Scowcroft, will be given two years to do its work. Energy Secretary Steven Chu [4] said the commission will have a free hand to examine a "full range of scientific and technical options" on waste storage, reprocessing and disposal, with one exception: the once-favored Yucca Mountain underground repository, which President Obama strongly opposes.
Links
[1] https://ploughshares.org/file/1503
[2] http://www.ploughshares.org/about-us/senator-chuck-hagel
[3] http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-blue-ribbon-commission-americas-nuclear-future
[4] http://www.energy.gov/organization/dr_steven_chu.htm
[5] http://www.lvrj.com/news/federal-panel-to-examine-nuclear-waste-storage-83143397.html