Wamp touts TVA role in nuclear waste project

“I believe TVA is going to … prove to our country that you can deal with the No. 1 liability associated with the nuclear industry and that is the waste,” the Chattanooga Republican said after touring an unfinished Watts Bar Nuclear Plant reactor that TVA intends to complete in five years.

America needs nuclear power to meet growing demand for energy and power sources that don’t foul the air like coal-fired plants, he said.

But the country will never be able to find enough places to bury the radioactive waste already piling up at nuclear plants, including TVA’s, he said.

‘You can’t build Yucca Mountain after Yucca Mountain after Yucca Mountain,’ Wamp said of the long-stalled Nevada site for nuclear waste. ‘As a matter of fact, we are proving it is kind of hard to build the first one.’

But if an anticipated nuclear revival develops as predicted, the United States will need six more Yucca Mountains over the next 50 years, said Wamp.