By Anne Macquarie, Toiyabe Chapter Executive Committee member and Legislative Committee Chair.
President Trump wants to kick-start Yucca Mountain. Nevada says: “We’re not going to go away and we’re not going to give up.”
For those who are new to Nevada, here’s a quick history of the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.
- Yucca Mountain, only 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was designated by Congress in 1987 as the ONLY site to be considered for permanent nuclear waste disposal. This act is known in our state as the screw Nevada bill. The state of Nevada and its people has been fighting against the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste repository for over 30 years.
- Since then, the U.S. Department of Energy has spent $15 billion to develop and study the site.
- After years of study, the Energy Department filed its license application on Yucca Mountain with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008.
- President Obama defunded the program in 2012.
- President Trump’s budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018 includes $110 million to restart the licensing process to build Yucca Mountain, and $10 million for interim storage.
- The House has rubber stamped the president’s spending request. The Senate has not included Yucca Mountain licensing funding in its spending bill for the department for 2018. Differences in the two bills are expected to be ironed out by a House-Senate conference panel. This issue is also likely to come up when Congress debates its budget in August and September. THIS IS WHERE WE STAND NOW.
Nevada stands firm against the project – mostly. Governor Sandoval calls the project, “a disgusting waste of money on the part of the federal government, saying it is "a porous volcano that sits on an earthquake fault."
Eugene Smith, professor emeritus of geology at UNLV, says “volcanism and seismic activity are major problems for putting a repository at Yucca Mountain and should be considered as major risks.” (for more on Yucca and volcanoes HERE’s an excellent video) The hazards of volcanos and earthquakes are only a couple of the 229 contentions filed by the state of Nevada in the Yucca Mountain licensing proceedings.
Bob Halstead, Executive Director of the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects says “It’s not just volcanism. The radioactive hazard from Yucca Mountain would threaten human health and the environment for a million years,” he said. “The cumulative uncertainties from volcanism, earthquakes and climate change are so large that the site should have been found unsuitable decades ago.”
One of the biggest problems of storing high-level nuclear waste is getting it here in the first place. As the above graphic shows, transportation threatens millions of Americans and their communities with radiation poisoning because of accidents and possible terrorist attack. Click here for an in-depth report of transportation risks within Nevada. And click here for more information about the transportation risks across the country.
Nevada’s leaders are unified in their opposition to the project – almost. Here is Nevada's attorney general on Yucca Mountain. Here’s Senator Dean Heller and Senator Cortez Masto. Congress members Kihuen, Rosen and Titus have issued similar statements.
What about Congressman Mark Amodei? He’s a little less firm, shall we say, in his opposition, leaving the door open for some kind of reprocessing facility – though no hint of reprocessing is in Trump’s budget. Here’s Amodei: “So, if you're gonna put it here, then what are you going to do to make us the premiere reprocessing, research and whatever thing…” (Here's a link to Amodei's full statement)
Umm, OK. Why does it make sense to ship high-level nuclear waste thousands of miles by truck and train, through towns and major citiesacross the country, across mountain ranges, through all kinds of weather, vulnerable to terrorist attack, rather than reprocessing it where it is generated? Maybe we’d better ask Amodei why he thinks that’s a good idea.
We will keep you informed as attempts to reopen the Yucca Mountain licensing process progresses. Will Trump succeed in “Screw Nevada two?”
And if anyone who likes to read, write, research, and follow the news would like to take on the job of keeping us all informed about Yucca Mountain, we could use the help.