Commission tackles nuclear waste.

• Position: TRENDS & TRANSITIONS - Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future - Brief article

Tens of thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel are stored at more than 70 sites throughout the country. What to do with this fuel, and other highly radioactive waste, is a question that a recently released draft report from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future attempts to answer.

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The report requested by President Obama in 2010 and set to be finished early next year--calls for a new, independent corporation to carry out a permanent nuclear waste disposal strategy. This would include the development of underground disposal areas and interim storage facilities to collect and house the waste until ready for permanent disposal.

The report recommends that the federal government work closely with state governments and local communities to decide where to build these facilities. To pay for this work, the report calls on Congress to release the $24 billion now sitting in the Nuclear Waste Fund. This money comes from contributions by state utility ratepayers over the last couple of decades, which has yet...