Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, today challenged Energy Secretary Steven Chu to be specific about the Obama Administrations alternatives to Yucca Mountain. Simpson also asked the Secretary to aggressively support the Next Generation Nuclear Plant and other nuclear energy research initiatives.

In his questioning, Simpson asked the Secretary to outline the Administration’s alternatives to Yucca Mountain and the scope of the Blue Ribbon Panel assigned to study the issue and make recommendations.

“I was both pleased and disappointed by what the Secretary had to say about alternatives to Yucca Mountain,” said Simpson after the hearing. “I was pleased to hear Secretary Chu’s support for closing the fuel cycle and using technology to reduce the amount of materials requiring permanent disposal. I was disappointed, however, to learn that Yucca Mountain will be excluded from consideration as a permanent repository despite his acknowledgement that a permanent repository will be needed. For taxpayers, that means the billions of dollars and decades of work invested at Yucca will be wasted and the politically difficult search for another site will begin.”

Simpson also challenged Secretary Chu to maintain focus on deployment of new nuclear technologies even as he supports the research and scientific discovery mission of the Department of Energy.

“All of the research in the world means very little if we aren’t actually building new technologies that can be deployed in our cities,” said Simpson after the hearing. “I asked Secretary Chu not to lose focus of the need to bring new technologies, like the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, to the market. Taxpayers have wisely invested tremendous amounts of money in research and, at some point, they need to see the tangible benefits of that investment in their daily lives. I want to see a stronger emphasis on deploying new nuclear technologies sooner rather than later.”

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is the lead research laboratory on the NGNP and is managing its development.

The House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee is expected to begin consideration of its fiscal year 2010 bill later this month.