LAS VEGAS " Nevada Sen. Harry Reid said Friday he would defer to a federal Energy Department plan to create a commission to study alternatives to a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
The Democratic majority leader scrapped his own proposal for a similar commission after meeting Friday with Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
The Energy Department's plan "will allow us to move more quickly toward a long-term solution to nuclear waste management," Reid said in a statement released afterward.
The plans for a nuclear waste panel were proposed earlier this month, after Chu declared Yucca Mountain, a site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was no longer considered an option for housing the nation's radioactive waste.
In the statement released Friday, Chu said the commission will help "chart a new path" for nuclear waste management.
Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., both Yucca Mountain foes, had proposed legislation that ordered Congress to create a study group to come up with alternatives. Its members would have been appointed by Reid and other congressional leaders.
The bill drew fire from the Nuclear Energy Institute and other industry groups who suggested the panel would not be independent if Reid appointed some of its members.
The Energy Department plan endorsed Friday allows Chu's department to appoint commissioners.
Reid and other stakeholders will also have a say in naming its members, his office said in the statement.
A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute declined to comment on the announcement.
Energy Department spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said the commission would be a "balanced panel" that included scientists and industry representatives.
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