Governor: No nuclear waste disposal site coming to Mississippi

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) - Governor Phil Bryant said there will not be a nuclear waste dump site in Mississippi.

"As far as nuclear waste of course not, that's an exaggeration," said Bryant.

There's been a lot of speculation that the governor supports a proposal on a state above-ground nuclear waste storage facility.

"Not going to be nuclear waste in Mississippi that was a research paper done by Mississippi Energy Institute," added Bryant.

That so called research paper was presented in Jackson Monday.

"This was a meeting to discuss advances in nuclear science, manufacturing of component parts, for example, there are industries that are interested in manufacturing in component parts, again just a research paper," said Bryant.

Communications Director Mick Bullock says the governor is only interested in recycling spent nuclear energy.

"I'm always interested in seeing more in advance nuclear technology particularly if it'll help us reduce in the future what will be a problem of what do we do with spent fuel, right now the United States Congress has decided that will be Yucca Mountain, that's the law," said Bryant.

Sierra Club State Director Louie Miller said reprocessing radioactive waste is illegal in the U.S., so there's really no point in having the discussion now.

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