Legislators call for national nuclear waste summit.

• Position: Sen. Chris Beutler, Rep. George Miller and Rep. Jack Barraclough

Three legislators stood before a room full of bureaucrats and nuclear industry representatives at the Department of Energy's annual conference for low-level radioactive waste last November. And they called for a national summit to address problems with the federal law and the current system for waste disposal.

Senator Chris Beutler of Nebraska, Representative George Miller of North Carolina and Representative Jack Barraclough of Idaho took turns describing why the current system for establishing disposal sites is not working.

Adhering to federal law, states have formed 10 regional compacts ostensibly to build 10 facilities (six other states chose to remain independent; therefore, each of them must also provide for disposal). But Senator Beutler claimed, "We only need one, two or, at the most, three disposal sites for the entire country."

Waste volumes have diminished dramatically in recent years as generators have compacted waste and sought other ways to avoid the expensive rates that prevail at currently operating facilities.

Every state and compact that has tried to site a disposal facility has run into significant political and scientific barriers, according to the legislators, who spoke of the waste problem in their home states and across the country. Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars since the federal law was passed in 1980, states, compacts and contractors have virtually nothing to show for it because no new disposal site has been opened.

Several...