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twitterNevada’s ‘mighty expensive dinosaur’
On ‘dead’ Yucca Mountain project, House subcommittee asks: If not there, where?
Thursday, June 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.
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- President's course leaves question open: Is it dead? (5-24-2009)
- In Obama's budget, money to fight Yucca also likely cut (5-20-2009)
- Dumped on (5-15-2009)
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- State can argue 222 claims against Yucca (5-11-2009)
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The House lawmakers who appropriate money for energy needs were not pleased as Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared before them Wednesday.
The legislators have approved spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Chu arrived to present the Energy Department’s annual budget request, which, it was widely known, had only minimal funds for the project. President Barack Obama is terminating the planned dump northwest of Las Vegas.
Disappointment ran deep among committee members, as did frustration and outrage. More than $9 billion has been spent developing the waste dump, which Nevada opposes.
“We got a mighty expensive dinosaur out there,” Arkansas Democratic Rep. Marion Berry said in his southerly deep drawl.
“It seems an awful shame to me we spent that money,” Berry went on. “I know folks in Nevada don’t like it, but sometimes things happen in Arkansas that I don’t like.”
Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho wanted to know the hard facts.
“Is Yucca Mountain, as a permanent geological repository, dead?” Simpson said.
Chu easily fielded that one.
“Yes.”
Simpson said he had learned long ago in politics “it doesn’t do much good to howl at the moon.” Yet he pressed on. What now?
The Energy Department is forming a committee to consider alternatives. Chu explained that science has progressed in the nearly 30 years since the country began seriously considering what to do with spent nuclear fuel.
Chu envisions different classes of nuclear waste storage, some more readily retrievable for recycling, if a technology can be developed that does not create a stream of plutonium that could be used to enrich nuclear weapons.
A permanent repository then would be just that — a site, unlike Yucca, where the waste would be not be touched again.
Simpson wanted to know if the commission could end up designating Yucca Mountain, “the most studied piece of earth in the world,” as the permanent site. The issue is important in Simpson’s home state of Idaho, which is holding nuclear fuel that is among a small amount of defense industry waste once planned for Yucca Mountain.
“I think Yucca Mountain as a long-term repository is definitely off the table,” the energy secretary replied.
Simpson saw where this was headed. “So this opens up all the sites that were looked at before — before Yucca Mountain was chosen — as well as any others, as potential permanent repositories?”
Chu explained that if the material is to be truly inaccessible, “then other sites become actually more desirable.”
“It becomes a different question,” he said.
Simpson marveled at the comment. “I find it amazing that the committee’s going to look at a geologic repository but the one geologic repository we’re not going to look at … is Yucca Mountain.
“To me it’s more politics than science.”
Scenes similar to this one have taken place in other committee rooms on Capitol Hill in recent months as it has become increasingly clear that Yucca’s days may truly be numbered. Lawmakers, particularly from states with stockpiles of used fuel sitting at nuclear power plants, have to answer to constituents who have been paying to develop Yucca Mountain.
As if salting the wound, Chu had come before them for the same reason that past energy officials come calling every year. He needed money. Even a dead program costs. The Energy Department is requesting another $196.8 million for the end of Yucca.
Discussion: 26 comments so far…
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Well, it's about time! For goodness sake, why must Nevada be the designated toxic waste dumpster for the entire country? Believe it or not, people actually live here.
"Simpson saw where this was headed. "So this opens up all the sites that were looked at before -- before Yucca Mountain was chosen -- as well as any others, as potential permanent repositories?"
"Chu explained that if the material is to be truly inaccessible, "then other sites become actually more desirable."
"It becomes a different question," he said.
"Simpson marveled at the comment. "I find it amazing that the committee's going to look at a geologic repository but the one geologic repository we're not going to look at " is Yucca Mountain."
Just not in Harry Reid's backyard. It is policaticaly safe anywhere else.
"Chu envisions different classes of nuclear waste storage, some more readily retrievable for recycling, if a technology can be developed that does not create a stream of plutonium that could be used to enrich nuclear weapons."
Steven Chu sounds just like Jimmy Carter and then Jimmy shut down the nuclear industry.
So why is it that Obama has promised Iran they can go nuclear and America can not.
Chu and President Obama say the Yucca repository will be "terminated" and is now "dead." There seems to be an unanswered question as to the authority that the Administration has to make that judgment. In 2002, when Congress overrode former Governor Guinn's "veto" of the designation of Yucca as a suitable repository site, subject to obtaining a license from the NRC, that resolution became Public Law 107-200.
In similar letters, 18 senators and two ranking members of House committees asked Secretary Chu to provide Congress the scientific and legal basis for the decision that Yucca is "not an option." Since ratepayers have paid close to $30 billion in fees and interest for disposal that was to have begun 11 years ago, they need answers to those questions as well.
"Chu envisions different classes of nuclear waste storage, some more readily retrievable."
Chu envisions "A permanent repository then would be just that -- a site, unlike Yucca, where the waste would be not be touched again."
Which is it "retrievable or permanent"
Chu is all over the map and he is going to give direction to a Task force. Dud
To bury the world's most deadly substance like a dog would bury a bone is a testament to the U.S.'s demise as a world leader in science. We need to figure out the best solution that is slightly smarter than my border collie could come up with. Not a lot, just slightly.
please send the jobs and money to another state. we don't need it here
Note to boco:
About that letter from the senators to Dr. Chu regarding the legal basis for the determination that Yucca Mountain is "not an option" and other questions...
A reply from Dr. Chu was requested by June 1. Nothing yet. We're still waiting, Dr. Chu.
Interesting how Obama gives the OK to Iran to explore nuclear engery (instead of windy and solar) and yet he considers it harmful for the United States to develop nuclear energy.
Hypocritic.
Headline Read:
Nevada's 'mighty expensive dinosaur'
I immediately thought it referred to Harry Reid!
Then I said, no, if that was the case it would have said "Nevada's 'out of touch, arrogant, mighty expensive dinosaur'"
Its the same as Dumbocrats wanting to close down Gitmo until they realized they had no place to move the waste that is there. Maybe Yucca can store terrorists.
Nevadans killed this. I say they pay for it. I propose a $1000 per Nevadan head tax until the 9 billion (plus 18% per annum interest) is paid back.
Yucca Mountain is a Top Secret Government VIP FEMA Luxurious Relocation Center. There is an underground transit link between Yucca and Area 51. All the Government VIP's will be flown into Area 51 and shuttled via the underground tunnel to the Yucca Mountain site.
Hows about Crawford Texas!
But just try to change the NWPA to delete Yucca Mountain, and see how far that bill gets! Obama is just playing politics to pay back Reid for help in getting elected. If Reid disappears, then Obama will pay back his next biggest contributor/supporter which could be Illinois power companies. The question is will Reid outlast Obama or vice versa? It is sad to see such a qualified intelligent person as Chu have to adopt a totally non-scientific political based decision to stop Yucca Mountain. What other decisions are being made that are also non-science based? The public will be asking this question for the entire term of Obama. And lastly, Nevadans are paying the most for the decision because it could have been billions of dollars in infrastructure development and jobs for the next 100 years. It would have transformed Nevada into the leader in science, health care and high tech jobs forever. Instead, Nevadans can continue to earn on average $22,000 / year as servants to the casino industry.
I agree with Dave... when the winds of politics change, Yucca will rise from the dead like a zombie and BHO will give a flowery speech about what our nation needs and it will begin again.
If the SCIENCE was truly driving this debate/issue, or there were open minds on both sides, we would have negotiated jobs for Nevadans and $$ for the state for Yucca as well as first option on any facilities for recycling or reprocessing as the technology comes online.
But then, we can't plan ahead any more than 2 years at a time in our state.....
We have a federal government to make these hard decisions. Projects like Yucca need continuity to succeed. The House and Senate need to recognize this as political hype by one person, Harry Reid, and pull together to do what's best for the country. Be careful Mr. Congressman, if you let that bottle spin, it may stop at your state. Of course that's not to mention the billions of dollars wasted that could have gone to help the poor and needy.
may i remind all you chucklebutts out there bitching and moaning about yucca mountain not being approved please remember: 1) it's on an active tectonic plate line, 2) it's on a dormant volcano (dormant, not dead), 3) independent tests show the surrounding rock layer is too porous to support ANY leakage that will occur (yes, after several decades, those tanks leak), and 4) the only reason yucca was chosen in the first place was because it came down to yucca and some dead-plains area in texas and once monkey-boy bush got in office, he killed his state's option out-right.
now settle down! it's a done deal. and if you want to talk about tax dollars being wasted, we can always refuel the WMD debate.
oh, and thumper -- stay on the subject, you yahoo.
sheckyvegas,
Everything you say is wrong.
1)It is not on any active fault lines. The USGS says so.
2)It is not on a dormant volcano. There is an extinct one about 12 miles away in different rock structure.
3)There are no "tanks". There are waste packages that have a total of 4 inches of various metals between the world and the waste which is either solid ceramic or glass - neither of which dissolves very quickly - i.e. tens of thousands of years.
4)Yucca Mountain was one of five final sites. It was chosen because the country could not afford to investigate all of these sites, and since it was next door to where 1000 nuclear bombs had been exploded it made sense to chose it. Bush did not chose Yucca Mountain, it was chosen under Reagan.
If you want to rant against Yucca Mountain, at least use some true facts and stop listening to
politicians.
Thousands of dedicated Americans of both parties who work at the National Laboatories and the USGS have determined that Yucca Mountain would work as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act passed by CONGRESS. However, it appears that Obama, Reid and Chu are essentially telling the world that the smartest people in America who design the nuclear weapons and other highest of high tech research are liars. If so, all of the labs should be shutdown immediately. Either that, or these government workers deserve an apology from the politicans.
thumper, stay on point; you're being a distractor. We're talking about yucca.
I firmly support Chu's recommendation for recycling to reduce the volume of waste. However, we still need a permanent repository. The science says yucca is safe. It will also provide many high paying jobs for Nevada. Cut through the politics, go with the science, preserve the billions already spent and get on with what's best for the country, including recycling.