21 Jan (NucNet): Steven Chu has been confirmed as secretary of energy in the administration of US president Barack Obama, the Department of Energy said today.
Dr Chu is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California has worked in recent years to find ways to counter climate change.
He became director of the Berkeley lab in 2004. It is the oldest of the DOE’s national laboratories, with 4,000 employees and an annual budget of 650 million US dollars (501 million euro). Under Dr Chu the laboratory has been a centre of research into biofuels and solar energy technologies.
Dr Chu, who is Chinese-American, told senators at a confirmation hearing that climate change is “a growing and pressing problem” and the nation’s dependence on oil represents a threat to the US economy and security.
One of the most important topics on Dr Chu’s agenda will be the future of the proposed Yucca Mountain deep geological repository in Nevada.
The DOE began studying Yucca Mountain in 1978 to determine whether it would be suitable for the nation’s first long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
In June 2008 the application to construct the repository was submitted to nuclear regulators by former secretary of energy Samuel Bodman.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Regulators Accept Yucca Mountain Application For Formal Review (News No. 71, 8 September 2008)
'No Alternative’ To Yucca, Says Head Of US Radwaste Programme (World Nuclear Review No. 43, 7 November 2008)
