Tribe needs nuclear waste solution

Tribe needs nuclear waste solution
Indian Country Today, Oneida, N.Y.
McClatchy-Tribune Regional News
28 October 2009
Indian Country Today (MCT)
Distributed by McClatchy - Tribune Information Services
Oct. 28--RED WING, Minn. -- The Prairie Island Indian Community called on President Barack Obama to follow the law and deliver on the federal government's decades-old mandate and promise to establish a permanent repository for the nation's commercial nuclear waste.
The tribe's urging comes after Congress approved the FY 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations bill which cuts funding for the proposed national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., to record low levels. High-level, radioactive nuclear waste from the nation's nuclear power plants is currently accumulating at "temporary" storage sites in 39 different states, including Minnesota. The Prairie Island Indian Community, near Red Wing, Minn., is located less than 600 yards from a nuclear power plant and nuclear waste storage site operated by Xcel Energy.