Oregon Public Broadcasting

Nearly a dozen members of President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission toured the Hanford Nuclear Reservation Wednesday. They toured buildings and sites where Hanford's high-level and most dangerous waste resides. They're also taking two days of testimony. Richland Correspondent Anna King reports.

Blue Ribbon Commission members stood on a cat walk high above deep pools of water filled with canisters of radioactive waste. Then, Hanford managers turned off the lights. The pool glowed an eerie blue/green from gamma radiation. The commissioners stayed in that darkness, for what seemed like enough time for the gravity of that glow to sink in.

This commission has been tasked with finding a permanent repository for the nation's nuclear waste. The future of high level radioactive waste has been thrown into limbo after President Obama stopped all construction at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Brooklyn Baptiste with Idaho's Nez Perce Tribe says the waste needs a safe, permanent resting place. 

Brooklyn Baptiste: "For us it's the cleanup and the hazards of Yucca Mountain not being accessible at the moment, but continuing to develop a nuclear energy and the waste that's produced by it. Where are they going to store it, how are they going to store it? And the safety of it."

It's a sentiment echoed by testimony from many state and regional officials.