By BETSY BLANEY
AP
LUBBOCK, Texas -- The federal government plans to spend $80 million assessing whether its hottest nuclear waste can be stored in 3-mile-deep holes, a project that could provide an alternative strategy to a Nevada repository plan that was halted in 2010.
The five-year borehole project was tentatively slated to start later this year on state-owned land in rural North Dakota, but it has already been met with opposition from state and local leaders who want more time to review whether the plan poses any public danger.
It should be a statewide decision," said Jeff Zent, spokesman for North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple, adding that a resolution from state legislators is a possibility. The Department of Energy wants to conduct its work just south of the Canadian border on 20 acres near Rugby, North Dakota - in part because it's in a rural area not prone to earthquakes - but is prepared to look elsewhere if a deal can't be reached...
