Las Vegas Sun

March 27, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Nuclear energy is yesterday’s answer

The proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is a dead project walking. Hearings hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week in Las Vegas will resemble an autopsy more than analysis of a viable project. Opponents, such as the Sierra Club (of which I am a member), will comment on the inadequate environmental study, risk to communities through which the waste will travel and desecration of tribal lands.

Thanks to changes caused by the 2008 election, the hard work of our entire congressional delegation, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is paying off. President Barack Obama says the dump is not an option, making good on his campaign promise to protect the health and safety of Nevadans from toxic waste storage in our desert.

In a huge saving for taxpayers tired of subsidizing a tunnel to nowhere, his budget slashed funding to only those costs necessary to answer queries. Sens. Reid and John Ensign just introduced a bill to study alternatives. In the meantime Reid advocates on-site, dry-cask storage under the ownership of the Energy Department.

Like coal, nuclear is yesterday’s technology, irrelevant to Nevada. Our economic recovery lies in clean, renewable energy produced for our own use and exported to the nation through a new network of safely sited transmission lines under legislation supported by Sen. Reid.

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