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Abstract
A handful of electric power companies are poised to submit applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this fall to begin building and operating the next generation of nuclear power plants. Other utilities were drawn to nuclear power after becoming convinced that it's the best way to satisfy the growing demand for electricity without increasing their emissions of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over commercial nuclear power plants and the NRC, says she still has serious concerns about how the industry will dispose of the 56,000 tons of highly radioactive waste that has already piled up at power plants across the nation.