Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Editorial: Another push for Yucca

Another year, another push by the Energy Department to breathe life into Yucca Mountain.

Last year's push to regain congressional interest in this dormant project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas went nowhere. We believe the new push, announced Tuesday by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, will meet the same fate.

It certainly should, as this year Congress is controlled by Democrats and opening Yucca Mountain as the burial site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste is largely a Republican dream. Also, the "new" legislative proposal is largely a rehash of last year's.

What's more, Harry Reid is now Senate majority leader. Reid, working with the rest of the state's congressional delegation, has always been able to stall this terribly unsafe project. In his new position he will be an even more formidable foe.

Once again the Energy Department's push to gain congressional acceptance of Yucca Mountain contains a veiled threat. Years ago, when a majority in Congress thought safety at Yucca Mountain was at least feasible, the amount of waste that could be buried there, if it ever received a federal license, was capped at 77,000 tons.

This year's Energy Department proposal, like last year's, seeks to have the cap removed. To scare Congress into acceptance of this notion, Energy Department officials are prepared say that if the cap remains, a second nuclear-waste dump will become necessary. The idea is to get members of Congress envisioning that second dump in their state, and voting to approve Yucca Mountain, sans cap, so as to spare their constituents the dangers so callously being foisted upon Nevada.

Years ago it was estimated that just to bury the 77,000 tons it would require round-the-clock transports to Yucca Mountain, by rail, barge and truck, for at least 24 years. If the cap is removed, the populations of Southern Nevada, and the more than 30 other states the waste would have to travel through, could look forward to lifetimes of deadly waste transports past their homes, schools and shopping centers.

We hope that's the image that members of Congress envision when this proposal comes before them. Yucca Mountain threatens to contaminate Nevada's soil, air and water, and presents the risk of deadly accidents throughout the country via its transportation routes.

Spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants and high-level nuclear waste from Defense Department facilities should remain where it is, safely sealed in casks right where it is produced.

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