Pena is President Clinton's nominee to run the Energy Department. Similar legislation passed the Senate last Congress but never made it to the House floor. Murkowski claims passage of the bill, S. 104, is at the top of the committee's agenda. A General Accounting Office report released this month states that the Energy Department will not know until 1999 if Yucca Mountain is a suitable site to store nuclear waste. Potential problems with the site could include the effect the radioactive waste would have on the nearby water supply.
Nuclear interests claim the facility is necessary because their plants are out of storage space.
They point to a July 1996 court decision requiring the Energy Department to take the commercial-spent fuel no later than January 1998. But environmental groups and Nevada lawmakers oppose the facility, citing the dangers of transporting hazardous materials across the country and the fatal effects of exposure to radiation. They also argue that the Nevada site is prone to earthquakes. The new rule, an FDA response to a 1995 Quaker Oats petition, does not meet everyone's approval. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says it is misleading because other sources of fiber, like fruits and vegetables, provide the same health benefits.