US nuclear waste repository begins filling new disposal area
Updated June 13, 2003 12:01 a.m. ET
A team of about two dozen workers working in an old coal mine in northwestern Pennsylvania has been selected by a group of investors to start work at a planned $2.5-billion nuclear waste repository in northern New York.
The selection of the team by the nonprofit American Legacy Foundation is not the only step that New York University’s Institute for Governance, Energy and Environment is taking to attract the investment needed to build the repository. Other steps include an intensive period of public education and community outreach.
The repository will be located in a 10-acre parcel of land about 12 miles north of Albany that is owned by the city of Albany and will be known as the Albany National Nuclear Security site or ANS. The group of investors, which includes private companies, universities and foundations, will manage the project for the U.S. Department of Energy and other agencies.
The development of the site requires the “full-scale, deep excavation, in situ production of a safe and secure low-level waste repository for the nation’s nuclear waste,” according to a statement issued by the group of investors led by George Washington University.
“This work is critical to the safety of the nation’s nuclear waste facilities,” said John Wilson, a senior managing director with the New York-based firm, AECOM. “The ANS is the nation’s largest disposal facility and is expected to store the country’s nuclear waste for generations to come.”
