BY RICK MARTINEZ – Correspondent

March 24, 2011

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the biggest threat of uncontained radiation from Japan’s earthquake-induced nuclear-plant disaster lies in the spent fuel rods stored on site, not the active power plant cores. I don’t know if the prime minister can order that Japan’s spent fuel rods be placed in a secured storage facility deep inside a mountain. But I do know that option is available to President Barack Obama. He should take it.

Although the president has claimed he’s a convert to the environmental and economic benefits of nuclear power, he’s gutted his support by taking off the table the long-awaited Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada. Obama has yielded to the ultimate “Not In My Back Yard” selfishness demonstrated by Nevada residents who have chosen to ignore the safety evidence generated by more than $10 billion worth of scientific and environmental studies conducted on the project.

Instead, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has formed a panel to look for alternatives to Yucca Mountain. The president went even further by eliminating funding for Yucca’s development from his proposed 2012 budget even though it has a dedicated revenue stream.

Back in 1982 when Congress passed a law creating the nuclear waste storage facility, it authorized a fee on utilities that use nuclear power. Among those that pay the fee are Duke and Progress Energy, North Carolina’s electric cooperatives and the state’s municipal power agencies. Since Yucca still isn’t open, the money has been piling up. The fee now generates about $750 million a year, which explains why the federal Nuclear Waste Fund has a balance that exceeds $24 billion. North Carolina ratepayers have paid nearly $1 billion into the fund. Earlier this month, electric utilities went to court to stop collection of the fee.

On another legal front, Washington and South Carolina have begun a court challenge of Obama’s unilateral abandonment of Yucca Mountain, which the administration did without securing congressional repeal of the law that created the project.

Legalities aside, the president should learn the lessons Japan’s nuclear calamities are teaching us. Obama should not only resume development of Yucca Mountain, he should speed it up.

Such a move has the Republican support he says is key to doing what’s best for the American people. On March 3, 64 Republicans introduced legislation that calls for building 200 more nuclear plants in the U.S. by 2030.

Included in the bill is a call for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license Yucca Mountain within six months unless there are technical and scientific reasons not to do so. Whining from Nevada tourism officials and the no-nuke crowd doesn’t count.

Even if the Japanese earthquake experience further slows the development of nuclear power here, it should not slow the drive to open Yucca. If anything, Japan’s experience should accelerate it. Storing spent fuel rods at a nuclear plant is dangerous and an easily avoidable risk

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association, 64,000 metric tons of spent fuel are stored at U.S. nuclear sites. Of that, 49,000 tons are stored in deep water pools like those used at the Japanese plants and at the Shearon Harris plant in Wake County.

What Japan is demonstrating to us is clear: the need for isolated nuclear waste storage facilities is separate from the debate about whether nuclear power is safe enough to continue as a major component of our energy portfolio. I wish the no-nuke folks and environmentalists would champion this key point – because even if they were successful in stopping the construction of new nuclear plants and in closing existing plants, one more step would be necessary.

The next logical step in nuclear safety? Gather up the 64,000 tons of nuclear waste spread throughout the country and store it inside a single mountain in Nevada.

Contributing columnist Rick Martinez (rickjmartinez2@frontier.com) is news director at WPTF, NC News Network and StateGovernmentRadio.com.