(The Center Square) - Members of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works on Wednesday considered a $50 billion federal plan that would fund three future nuclear innovation campuses designed to attract heavy manufacturing industries with abundant energy while also housing radioactive waste.
Testifying before the committee, Lake Barrett, chair of the American Nuclear Society Nuclear Waste Policy Task Force, urged lawmakers to overhaul the decades-old Nuclear Waste Policy Act to accommodate a new era of nuclear fuel reprocessing by civilian businesses.
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