By Brett Boese
Post-Bulletin, Red Wing MN 

RED WING -- Faced with a growing pile of nuclear waste and nowhere to put it, Red Wing has hired a lobbyist to bring the issue to the attention of state lawmakers.

The city council unanimously agreed Monday to hire the lobbying firm Flaherty and Hood for $110,000.

The Obama administration effectively closed Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a nuclear waste depository. That "means the city will face hosting this nuclear waste forever, really," lawyer Tim Flaherty said. "It's the city's belief that the state needs to take a leadership role in this issue. ...The federal government has failed to meet its responsibility here, and it really falls back on the state and local government to find a solution."

The Prairie Island Nuclear Plant is in Red Wing.

Flaherty's firm is reviewing viable solutions to the storage problem and hopes to have a proposal ready in November. It then would seek a legislative sponsor.

In addition to the issue of storing nuclear waste, Flaherty and Hood also hope to address the problem of first responders and nuclear power. The firm is reviewing a recently released state study on the subject.

"What happens in 20 years after this expansion of the plant and the increase in dry cask storage?" Flaherty said. "What happens in 20 years when the plant is decommissioned?

"I think the city just feels that this needs to be addressed. It's a state and a local issue; it's a joint issue."

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