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Saturday, March 20, 2010 | 2:04 a.m.
This month there was plenty of relief in Nevada when the U.S. Energy Department formally withdrew its application to build a high-level nuclear waste dump just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In doing so, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge that he would do what he could to stop the Yucca Mountain project if elected to the White House.
The Democratic president’s move was a dramatic reversal of the nuclear-waste policy of President George W. Bush, a Republican who was hellbent on burying 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in Nevada, a decision meant to curry favor with the influential nuclear power industry.
The industry’s supporters, including in Congress and in statehouses, want to block Obama’s decision. Some are planning lawsuits and others are vowing to oppose the move when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission takes up the Obama administration’s request to withdraw the license application.
Republican Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina is one of the politicians who has been particularly nasty in his criticism of Obama’s decision. In case you forgot, Sanford is the “family values” politician who cheated on his wife with a woman in Argentina, an affair in which taxpayers helped foot his travel bill. One would think Sanford would make better use of his time, seeking to rehabilitate his tawdry image, but apparently not. Instead, he would rather sling mud at Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Regarding the Obama administration’s decision to end the Yucca project, Sanford wrote a memo last month to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to remind him that South Carolina had the nation’s third-largest amount of nuclear waste. Sanford claimed “it is a blatantly political move completely contrary to the soaring rhetoric of the Obama campaign, and it represents nothing more than what many would see as a Chicago-style political payoff. To detractors, this political capitulation comes as no surprise as the site of Obama’s reversal is Nevada — home to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.”
First of all, Obama was clear in the campaign that, based on the science, he concluded that Yucca Mountain would be a terrible place to store nuclear waste. He made no secret about it, and there was no payoff. Here is what happened: Someone running for the highest office in the land made a promise to a state’s voters and kept his word. Imagine that. It goes without saying that Sanford could use a refresher course on values and the sanctity of keeping a vow.
It also needs to be said that Yucca Mountain is about the worst place someone could think of to permanently bury man’s deadliest waste. It is far removed from where most of the country’s nuclear waste is generated — in the East and the South — a factor that would require the dangerous transportation of this waste thousands of miles across the nation, through cities and towns. Yucca Mountain, which is actually a volcanic ridge, sits in a highly active seismic region, hardly the place to bury high-level nuclear waste. And it has been determined that the waste can safely be stored where it’s produced for a hundred years and more — plenty of time to determine how to dispose of the waste other than at Yucca Mountain.
Although Nevadans are closer than ever to seeing the Yucca Mountain project killed once and for all, the nuclear power industry still has a lot of supporters trying to turn our state into a dumping ground. That is why it is so crucial that we have elected officials like Harry Reid and Barack Obama in office today and in the future, to fend off these attacks — not only for Nevada’s sake but also for the nation’s as well.
Obama's decision to close Yucca Mountain is nothing but an election year ploy to get Harry Reid reelected.
After the November elections, Yucca will be brought back to life...
This is not a complicated issue. We create a very deadly, highly radioactive waste at 104 nuclear power plants across the country. It is here and is not going away. Do we continue to store this waste at the originating plant or do we put it into a hole in the middle of the desert.
The vast majority of the plants run along the Atlantic coast states which are very densely poulated. If a catastrophy were to occur there it could kill millions of people and destroy hundreds of thousand of homes. Security varies at the different plants.
At Yucca mountain if there were a major release, even if it got all of Las Vegas it would be less of a problem that if it took out a whole state in New England.
It is a choice of the lesser of two very bad evils. It is too bad it got so political.
until the statute is changed...
it is not dead...
that is why we must re-elect harry reid!!!
"First of all, Obama was clear in the campaign that, based on the science, he concluded that Yucca Mountain would be a terrible place to store nuclear waste. He made no secret about it, and there was no payoff."
________
Oh right, Obama "The Chosen One" and now world class scientist looked over the data and concluded Yucca mtn was "terrible" and there was no payoff. And we are supposed to believe this after watching all the payoffs and bribery going on to get his healthcare plan through.
Eighteen organizations urge continued funding for Yucca Mountain and ask for release of documents on proposed termination.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners is urging the Obama administration to reconsider its controversial decision to withdraw its Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository license.
This is just an election year ploy by Obama to try to get Harry Reid reelected, but the voters are not buying it. After the November election, Obama will drop opposition to Yucca and rename it in honor of his number one sidekick... How about "Harry's Nuclear Suppository?"
Larry and Jib and RHG:
It is starting to be fun watching you guys decompose politically over these issues.
Yucca is a cause that has little public support, much less than heath care reform, but you think that it is OK to override the will of the people and put all this Nuclear death 90 miles from home. Talk about rank juvenile hypocrisy. You guys take the cake.
It is likely you have been in Vegas long enough to have see our skyline after the horrible California fires the past several years. It is real, it has been caustic, but it has not been a shower of death. I remember the ash being noticeable on cars left outside, and on our rocky lawns. That is from 200 odd miles away. Do you "patriots" so willing to store death 90 miles from here forget that the border of our most populous state is just a half an hour from the strip?
I expect BOTH Reid and, for the time being before he gets matching bracelets, John Ensign to keep that waste out of here until we formulate a better plan.
And I fervently hope you three are all safe in your homes and possessions. And that you live happy and full lives. I also hope and pray, for my four week old babies sake that people who demagogue like you will be extinct when she comes of age. You guys are just not right.
It's OK to not like Senator Reid, in fact good reasons in some cases. But you guys are 100% against him. No one deserves that much contempt, except Sean Hannity maybe, stealin from soldiers and the stars of his Freedom Concerts http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6938/sean...
100 miles from the nearest city in a desert 1000 feet underground next to where over 900 nuclear bombs were exploded whose water 2000 feet below the repository flows in 15000 years to Death Valley is "the worst place someone could think of to permanently bury man's deadliest waste".
Really??
BTW the NWPA was a bipartisan law, not Bush's and not the Republicans. Further, to write that it is the "industry" that opposes the illegal and unConstitutional cancelation of the nation's only repository is ludicrous. These states such as South Carolina have done their part in hosting federal nuclear defense efforts for the last 60 yeasrs and now just want Nevada to obey the law passed by Congress.
Davelv:
If it is such a good idea to have it isolated, Fort Yukon, Alaska sounds like a better spot to me.
JeffFromVegas,
If Fort Yukon is dry and has a deep water level, go for it.
My beef with Obama is that he is not following a law passed by Congress. Instead, he is trying to use dictatorial methods to change the path that the nation decided upon 25 years ago. He is not following any federal requirements for major federal decisions. He is subjecting all Americans to $100 billion in additional tax payments for contract defaults. Etc.
If the states want to change the law, then he should work with Congress to do so. Until then, every citizen should be afraid of his chosen method as it is showing the world that the American constitutional system can be usurped for political payoffs. Combined with what he is doing for a health care bill, the world is rightfully starting to ignore any Obama's leadership as pointed out in the WSJ today.
JeffFromVegas and fosimmons; Remember one of the "heroes" of the right and a member of Sean Hannity's "Freedom Concerts (freedom to confuse and then rip off the public) is none other than Col. Oliver North, a man who SOLD WEAPONS TO THE ENEMY, IRAN only a few years after they had taken our diplomats hostage! Such hypocricy! Of course this is nothing new on the extreme right.
Davelv
Dictatorial? The guy has bent over and has pain from the way he has tried to work with the folks on the right.
Not following laws? Changing a 25 year old path? If it has taken 25 years to bury ZERO drums or containers, that path is not a workable argument. Our knowledge has changed and we have the NIMBY-ness that will always attch to this issue.
Get the GOP to work with him, 41 votes and nothing gets done is the reality. Ripping pages off the calendar to get to November with as many casualties as possible is one sides strategy. This anti-Americanism is worse than the nuclear waste you want stored in our back yard.
Get the GOP involved in helping solve problems, rather than being the largest problem and you will take away the power from the extremists in both parties. The middle class will have a voice then.
"Yucca is a cause that has little public support, much less than heath care reform, but you think that it is OK to override the will of the people and put all this Nuclear death 90 miles from home. Talk about rank juvenile hypocrisy. You guys take the cake."
_____________
What the hell are you ranting about? First off, you, Harry Reid, Barack Obama and the LVSun editorial staff don't make up the "will of the people". And I have no idea whatsoever as to why I am a "hypocrite" in your view. That is taking into account that you even know what the definition of the word is. But, I'll give you an example of a hypocrite, Harry Reid and other Nevada politicians. This guy didn't have a problem with all this "nuclear death" when they were doing testing out there. I know, I worked there and it was a regular political campaign stop for Nevada politicians running for office and looking for votes. And since you have decided to bring your children into this, it is not my supposed "demagoguery" (another word you obviously don't know the meaning of) that is going to make this country a very unpleasant place for them to live in, but your whacked out liberal/leftwing politics that will make things uncomfortable for them. I hope they remember who to thank when they grow up and realize this country ain't what it used to be.
JeffFromVegas,
Obama set the tone at one of his first cabinet meetings last year when people were discussing give and take. His response was "I won, I don't have to compromise".
And then he proceeded from there.
America wanted change, not Chicago style corrupt politics. Recent elections, including a Republican Senator to replace Kennedy, show that Obama's methods is not what is wanted.
Obama will be a one term president and Congress will flip to Republican in this fall's election. Don't blame the GOP, blame Obama for the lack of bipartisan leadership and team play.
And indeed, it has taken 25 years to analyze and design Yucca because Reid has kept the budget at bare minimums for the last decade. Open the Nuclear Waste Fund for its unlimited use, and the repository if licensed by the NRC can be open in 3 to 5 years.
BTW, there are no drums. There are waste packages with 5 inches of multiple layers and types of steel. You must have been watching Reid's ads that show a bulldozer pushing over a pile stack of yellow drums. This is all misleading propaganda aimed at uninformed naive voters.
When the idea of a nuclear waste storage was first conceived the originators of the idea knew that this would happen. They knew that there would be people running around with their hair on fire claiming "glowing children". The end result will be the depot will be up and running someday and there is no President that can stop it.
Lowden and tarkanian want nukes at yucca. Every reprocessing center in the world is polluted.
Davelv
I had hope for you.What you claim is not born out by the factual public record. He's really had the worst possible hand dealt to him to start with, and the other side, like with FoxNews the other night with the incredibly disrespectful interview
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGUjb4pT8... )
everyone, you included,play a different tune with Obama. He has done too little in my book too. But that is about to change, tomorrow.
Jeff-Maybe you could figure a better place to put that poison crap. Maybe you think it is smart to leave in place in densely populated states like New York (6 plants), Pennsylvania (6 plants) North Carolina (5 plants), South Carolina (7 plants), Illinois (11 plants), Florida (5 plants) (figures from U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comission). Look at the maps of these states, they are nothing like Nevada where if you leave Las Vegas there is nothing significant until Carson City. These states have town after town after town with millions and millions of people. Could you imagine the death and damage if a plant had a leak and it all blew into New York City. What? Nine million people plus suburbs.
Genius, it's here, it's not going away, where would you put it to minimize risk to life and property.
This Sun Editorial smacks of the same political hype which was the REAL cause of Yucca Mountain's demise.
Let's get some facts straight:
A repository is needed for Nuclear Power's future.
New nuclear power plants will NOT be approved via the NRC until this dilemma is solved (i.e. Obama's "promised" low interest loans to build more plants is a useless gesture).
If Obama's claims that his decisions are based on SCIENCE, why has his Energy Secretary (Dr. Chu) who is a Nobel prize winning physicist provided NO explanation into WHY he has decided to pull the license? Many people have asked him and he only has very 'surface' answers like 'we need to do better'. Wow, some analysis from a man of his scientific background.
This is probably the most important decision we can make for our country's future energy needs and THIS is the kind of analysis we get, political BS!
If this administration REALLY wanted to base Yucca Mountain's future on SCIENCE, they would have let the NRC complete their study of the license submitted by the nation's national labs of which they had only two more years for completion.
I mean, after all if you really, really, really wanted SCIENCE to dictate this decision, why not let the NRC, who are the nation's experts, decide the fate of the repository?
No, instead DOE pulled the license application "with prejudice" which means NONE of the data or studies submitted to the NRC (which was showing great results by the NRC based on their comments) can EVER be used again. A truly terrible waste of SCIENCE.
The reason this was done was to get ONE MAN re-elected. The "PROMISE" that this editorial mentions is indeed a promise kept by the president, but not for the good of the voters, instead it was a promise made in a payoff for Harry Reid's support to get Obama elected.
Our president is doing nothing more than returning the favor and trying to get Reid re-elected.
Plenty more evidence of the above comments can be viewed at http://aBadReid.com
Nevadan's need the truth. The press and news media constantly bombard the public with hype (why is it always called the "dump" and 55 gallon drums of leaking radioactive waste shown on the media graphics during their reporting?)
Those educated on this subject must have a good laugh of these cartoon portrayals of Yucca Mountain. It's a shame the truth of the matter isn't more publically touted.
sue no experience and no clout lowden couldn't get a crack house closed...
we must re-elect harry reid!!!
Jib101:
I appreciate being addressed correctly (genius). Mr.Genius is OK too :)
Some simple logic first, if they reap the benefit of this energy, why would someone else, because they have chosen to live in a significantly more remote place be subject a large portion of the dangers this material poses? This seems to be antithetical to your overall arguments I have watched here. That seems REAL big brotherish to me.
Reality second: I am of the opinion that there needs to be third, fourth,and fifth opinion/options, maybe more. I do not feel the Yucca solution makes good sense, based upon my scientifically researched opinion.
Mr. Genius-There are only two options for waste now. Yucca Mountain and on site in 104 reactors nationwide. There may someday be three, four, or sixteen but no one has come up with them yet. The best reason for placing the waste here is that it would be many many times cheaper to make the citizens of Las Vegas whole after the loss of the home or business than it would be to make whole the citizens of an eastern state. Nevada has about 2.5 million while Illinois has 13 million, Massachusets 6 million, New York 19 million and Pennsylvania 12 million. It is like running an army during war, all other things being equal you will pick the course of action where you expect the least casualties, human and to a lesser degree equipment.
You say you are doing research. Did you get to take the free Yucca tour when DOE was offering it? It was quite interesting and I realize I got only their side but it made sense and I am always very skeptical of anything I hear from the government.
I am always skeptical when someone comments about the possibility of a train or other wreck while carrying nuclear waste. Yes, it is very remotely possible. I believe they're are seven plants refining uranium to make nuclear fuel in this country now. It was a bit hard to research the number accurately. There are 104 nuclear plants that use the fuel. There are also 80 Navy ships which use the fuel. Ever since the nuclear power industry started they have been transporting the new fuel from the refinery and to the navy ships by rail and by highway. There has never been a serious incident. I see the possibilities of an incident with transporting the waste are very remote.
The first line of this story is incorrect. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has not formally withdrawn its Yucca Mountain Repository License Application. DOE submitted a motion to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) to withdraw its application. The ASLB has not yet ruled on that motion. So far, Aiken County, South Carolina, the State of South Carolina, the Prairie Island Indian Community, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, and the State of Washington have all petitioned the ASLB to intervene on DOE's motion.
Also, the letter by the eighteen organizations mentioned by LarryVegas can be seen here: http://www.sustainablefuelcycle.com/reso....
There are opposing views to the termination of the Yucca Mountain Project from Senator Murkowsi of Alaska, Representative Diaz-Balart from Florida, and Dale Klein, the former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), just mention a few.
There are pending lawsuits from three businessmen from Southeastern Washington, Aiken County, South Carolina, and, I believe, the State of South Carolina.
There are always two sides to a story.
JIB101:
The overall security of moving spent nuclear fuel is not really an issue. It has been moved with great care everywhere in the world. Only one slight mishap that didn't result in any problems.
My main concern is terrorist and enemy based. I think the whole of this program should become and stay top secret. I have great issues with the entire concept of this being so publicly known. The period of time these materials go into the funnel of Yucca is inviting catastrophe. I advocate a shell game of types, more costly potentially...
... Your well thought out position is noted.
THESE REPUBLICANS ARE BRAIN-DEAD.
That's why we booted their sorry butts out of
the WHITE House.
YUCCA IS DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, has also expressed her opposition to the termination of the Yucca Mountain Project. It's probably a good bet that other Democratic States, like Illinois and the Northeastern states also oppose closing Yucca because a large portion of their electricity is supplied by nuclear power.
Hi JeffFromLasVegas,
I absolutely agree with you - users of nuclear power should dispose of their own waste. So just where will Las Vegas that gets 16% of its electricity from nuclear power according to the EPA put its 2500 spent fuel assemblies so far produced? And where will Nevada's 50 to 100 waste packages worth of defense waste go? Red Rock Canyon or Yucca Mountain?
Also, I am glad that you have done scientific research. Please confirm that includes reading the multiple 500 page long studies done the 1980s that showed Yucca Mountain as one of the best locations? And that you have actually read the License Application, all 8000 pages, that was produced by thousands of engineers at the best companies in the country as well as hundreds of the country's smartest scientists who work at multiple national laboratories.
Lacking a designated waste repository, there can be no waste confidence rule that will stand up to lawsuits - and rightfully so. Thus, no new nuclear power plants can be built AND existing nuclear power plants will have to shut down.
This means the cost of electricity will double or triple, which is what Obama stated two years ago was his goal. And this means no extra money in people's pockets for gambling. And this means you chose the wrong city to live in, since it is only going to die as gambling in Las Vegas goes away. In fact, no one needs to worry about Yucca Mountain because Las Vegas will be empty by the time it was closed in 300 years.
I do agree with Secretary Chu that some of the waste can be disposed in salt domes, but not all of it. There will always be a need for geologic repository such as Yucca Mountain.
Davelv:
Have a bit to do tonight, so this will be brief. Why house this material in the USA at all?
Do you have a vested interest in the Yucca project. I'll look in later tonight if you've replied.
There is little left to say except that I agree that these last 25 years it has been a bipartisan effort to keep Yucca moving along. The Clinton years were some of the best (and worst) in terms of funding, for example. And transportation is a non-issue, and a generic issue: WHATEVER the new path is, there will be transportation.
I agree that there are other geologic formations at which this can also be done safely, I have worked on granites and salt in the past. Clays are very gppd if they are deep enough. But there was nothing intrinsically unsafe about the proposed repository at Yucca, its engineered systems would last for a very long time, and the expected outcome in terms of groundwater contamination, groundwater that goes toward Death Valley, up to a million years from now was virtually undetectable.
Does it matter that we just wasted 25 years and 10 billion dollars? The answer cannot seriously be 'no." It will take at least that long to come back to the same time-place we are now, with a license application under review. What will really help though, and save money too, is that the next repositories will likely be in geologic media already being used (by that time) by the French, Finns, Swedes and maybe the Germans too. Whatever competent rock we select next, in other words, we can duplicate what other countries have done for the same rock type in terms of charaterization, long term safety evaluation, and even design!
That is the ONLY benefit of being a leader rather than a follower, we can learn from others' successes and mistakes. Brush up on your Swedish, Finnish, French and German. They are now the leaders, since we have stepped aside.
Who knew?
The "Appalachian Trail" leads right up to Yucca Mountain!!
Hasn't this man ALREADY done enough damage trying to stick things in the wrong holes?
Sanford's in charge of a state, with numerous toxic storage issues. He seems to think shipping it all outside his borders will solve his problems...because that's easier than trying to find a GOOD solution.
Any of you who were unhappy when it was announced that there wouldn't be a Coal-fired plant near Mesquite should read this:
http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/10/s...
JeffFromLasVegas,
Some of the material is very valuable - someday. A lot of it can be used to make weapons, either nuclear or radiological. It was produced in the US. Considering everything, it is unwise to store or dispose of it outside the US.
Do I have an interest in the economic and political future of the United States as embodied in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act? Yes, every American does. Either change the law or follow it. If Obama and the LV Sun want something else, then use our Constitutional based processes to change it. Otherwise, America's integrity in the world as a democratic country is being lost as are everyone's freedom to expect federal laws to be followed by every President. Obama is setting a dangerous precedent by deciding that a law is unworkable. A future President could void a whole lot of laws and unless a line is drawn now, it will happen. All everyone wants is the law to be followed.
As to comments on this forum, they were directed initially at the absurb rhetoric that the LV Sun uses to describe Yucca Mountain as the worst place to put waste. It is unscientific, unsupportable and inflammatory as well as derogatory to the thousands of people both Republican and Democratic who have worked at Congress' direction on the project. BTW, I am a registered Democrat. This is not a Republican vs Democrat issue, it is a Constitutional issue.
Read some of the lawsuits as they describe quite well what mulitple federal laws Obama and Chu are breaking or ignoring.
Whenever I see Obama, Reid, and Secretary Chu together I can't help but sing (in my best Beavis and ButtHead voice) Breaking the Lawwwww, Breakin the lawwwwww.....
JeffFromVegas:
First of all, you need to stick your condescending attitude you know where. Please, saying things like "I approve of your well thought out position" when you yourself clearly haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about.
Second, to the absurd claim made by Fosimmons, and as someone who has actually studied this issue, I could demonstrate beyond any doubt that the scientific case for Yucca Mountain HAS BEEN MADE by the only Nevadans with any brains: namely, the thousands of scientists and engineers who have worked on the Project for decades. These people are the best our country has to offer: geologists, seismologists, vulcanologists, corrosion scientists, metallurgists, hydrologists, and on and on, all of them from our national laboratories or agencies like the USGS.
Now, I ask you: Whom should I trust on this fundamentally environmental, public safety and health issue? A population that lusts after massive SUVs and ever-encroaching developments filled with mini-mansions? A population of individuals who think with their groins or their addictions, all catered to ad nauseam by an industry that exists only to extract cash from hedonists and the terminally irresponsible? A population that gave our country one of the highest (if not the highest) foreclosure rate in the nation?
I'm supposed to trust the judgment of my fellow Nevadans on the issue of Yucca Mountain, an environmental issue, when they don't raise an eyebrow when a train tanker carrying deadly chlorine careens through the center of Vegas and narrowly avoids unleashing a catastrophe that a UNLV study claimed could kill 70,000 to 90,000 residents in a few days?
And to that point, your ridiculous fear-mongering about that stupid canard, the alleged danger of transporting nuclear waste, needs to be laid to rest with finality. First of all, the studies have been done; the dose implications of an attack on a transportation cask using an RPG have been calculated. Let me be the first (obviously) to inform you: The consequences to public health and safety are very small indeed compared to a similar strike on, say, a train tanker (or tankers) carrying chlorine.
And yet you and other of my fellow Nevadans will yammer and bleat about the alleged dangers of transporting nuclear waste? Pathetic.
JeffFromVegas:
And here's another thing you can stick somewhere:
To speak of "rank juvenile hypocrisy" when you yourself don't seem to grasp the basic concepts of democracy is truly pathetic.
Do us all a favor and go back through the Congressional Record as it concerns Yucca Mountain. Look at the voting record for the 2002 site recommendation, for example (60-39 in the Senate, etc.)
In fact, look at all the votes, and then explain to me how Yucca Mountain has "little public support." Next, you might explain your own intellectual decomposition, not to mention your own demagoguery.
And another thing, for the record:
Nuclear waste is nowhere near being the "most deadly poison known to man." This, again, is another canard fostered by blow-hard anti-nuke crusaders.
One sometimes hears that enough plutonium has been produced by nuclear activities to kill 10 billion people. This, of course, is predicated on the notion that the world's entire inventory of plutonium could be divided into equal amounts then ingested.
Using the same scenario, which is frankly absurd in its premises, we soon discover that the world produces enough chlorine annually to kill over 400 trillion people. The numbers are similarly stupefying for phosgene (enough to kill 20 trillion), ammonia (enough to kill 6 trillion), and hydrogen cyanide (also enough to kill 6 trillion). We even produce enough barium (used widely in medical procedures and radiologic medicine) to kill 100 billion, ten times more than our inventory of plutonium could kill. And these chemicals, unlike radionuclides, do not decay and lose potency with time. They are forever and can only be diluted into submission.
So please, rather that merely stating that your position is based on "scientific research," why don't you actually do some, and then take the next necessary step of placing your conclusions in the context of relative risk.
I suspect that you'll find that your alleged scientifically informed opinion is little more than an elaborately rationalized political opinion that merely searched for whatever partial, imperfectly conceived bits of data would support a conclusion already made in advance.
Ardent,
As we both know, no one in Nevada who is opposed to Yucca Mountain is basing their opinion on science or facts. It is pure politics to reelected Democratic politicians and fear mongering to make money for the casinos by keeping the population high school graduates or less.
Logical thinkers should face the facts. Yucca Mountain is dead. Nuclear power is dead. America's future economy and political system are severely damaged. The world's potential dictators have learned how easy it is to manipulate and control their populations.