July 2011 - Blue Ribbon Commission's draft report:

On January 26, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future delivered its final report to the U.S. secretary of energy. The commission was formed at the request of President Barack Obama two years ago after he announced that his administration would no longer pursue the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, nuclear waste site. Led by former U.S. representative Lee Hamilton and former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, the 15-member commission examined various aspects of the nation’s spent fuel policy, such as repository siting and management systems, technology options, transportation, and storage.

The report calls for a range of reforms to the existing repository siting and management system and emphasizes the importance of U.S. leadership in nuclear energy technology and in global nuclear safety and security. The report’s key recommendations are that the United States needs to move forward with the siting of a permanent nuclear waste repository based on consent by “affected units of government—the host states, tribes, and local communities”; that the waste repository process should be managed by a federally chartered corporation; and that this new entity should take charge of the Nuclear Waste Fund. Additionally, the report urges the development of an interim storage site, as well as resumption of the site selection process for a permanent repository.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (Commission) submitted its final report to the Secretary of Energy on January 26, 2012.

LEE HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRMAN, represented Indiana's 9th Congressional District from January 1965-January 1999. In Congress, Hamilton served as the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and chaired the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He is president and the director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the director of The Center on Congress at Indiana University.

BRENT SCOWCROFT, CO-CHAIRMAN, served as the national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Served in the military for 29 years, and concluded at the rank of lieutenant general following service as the deputy national security adviser.

MARK AYERS, president, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

VICKY BAILEY, former commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; former Department of Energy assistant secretary for policy and international affairs

ALBERT CARNESALE, chancellor emeritus and professor, UCLA

PETE V. DOMENICI, senior fellow, Bipartisan Policy Center; former U.S. senator from New Mexico

SUSAN EISENHOWER, president, Eisenhower Group Inc.

CHUCK HAGEL, former U.S. senator from Nebraska

JONATHAN LASH, president, World Resources Institute

ALLISON MACFARLANE, associate professor of environmental science and policy, George Mason University

RICHARD A. MESERVE, president, Carnegie Institution for Science; former chairman, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

ERNIE MONIZ, professor of physics and Cecil & Ida Green Distinguished Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PER PETERSON, professor and chairman, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California-Berkeley

JOHN ROWE, chairman and chief executive officer, Exelon Corp.

PHIL SHARP, president, Resources for the Future