MIT's McFarlane on Yucca Mountain

From Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle:

At this point "there's probably an even chance either way that (Yucca Mountain) opens or doesn't open," said geologist and MIT Professor Alison McFarlane, co-editor of "Uncertainty Underground," a 431-page anthology of scientific reports on Yucca Mountain published by MIT Press in May.

"It has suffered some severe blows in the past couple of years. There are a number of people in the (scientific) community who are talking about whether we need a 'Plan B,' " she said.

McFarlane believes that some kind of underground repository in the United States is "absolutely necessary." But she thinks it might be wiser to build the repository elsewhere, perhaps in a state closer to the East Coast, where there are far more nuclear power plants and, therefore, less need to transport nuclear fuel to Nevada.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Used Fuel, Energy, Technology, Electricity, Yucca Mountain, Nevada