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Nevadans know best
Panel says nation should look for places willing to take nuclear waste
Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 | 2 a.m.
What do you think?
Send your thoughts in a letter — no more than 250 words. Include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Anonymous letters will not be considered. E-mail: letters@lasvegassun.com.The federal blue-ribbon panel on nuclear waste issued its final report Thursday, saying the nation should use a “consent-based approach” in searching for a new place to store the nation’s waste, giving communities and states a greater say in the process.
Hear, hear.
That would be a welcome and drastic change in the way the issue of high-level nuclear waste has been handled in this country. For nearly three decades, the federal government and the other states have tried to make Nevada a nuclear waste dump, putting politics ahead of sound policy.
Nevada has never wanted high-level nuclear waste and vigorously opposed the federal government’s overreaching efforts, yet some members of Congress have crusaded to open a dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, because they want nuclear waste out of their backyards.
The blue-ribbon panel has called for a new approach, one that would look for communities willing to take the dump. This should be the death knell of the Yucca Mountain project, but its supporters have vowed to plow ahead. They have never shown much concern for Nevada nor cared about getting the state’s consent.
In fact, the nuclear power industry and Republican leaders in Congress have ignored the key finding in the panel’s report. A coalition of nuclear power industry officials on Thursday issued a statement once again pushing Yucca Mountain, and Republican leaders in Congress have renewed their efforts to breathe life into the project.
In the past, Yucca Mountain’s supporters have complained that opposition to the dump is “political” and blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to shelve the project.
But their cries of “politics” are pure hypocrisy. The fact is that the Yucca Mountain project is steeped in politics, as the nuclear power industry and its supporters worked behind the scenes to stack the deck against Nevada. In 1987, the process to find a geological repository was short-circuited when powerful leaders in Congress from other states pushed through the “Screw Nevada” bill, which ended the search and designated Yucca Mountain as the nation’s dump. Scientists then went from seeking the best site to trying to make Yucca Mountain work.
In the years since, Nevada has lodged scores of legitimate objections, including scientific (it’s not the best place for a geological repository), safety (Yucca Mountain is a porous, volcanic ridge) and financial (recent estimates put the cost of the project at $100 billion). In response, the nuclear power industry and its supporters have patronized Nevada, pooh-poohing those concerns.
There is a delicious irony in this: Many of the Republican leaders pushing for Yucca Mountain are the same conservatives who love to bash government at every turn. Have they noticed that Yucca Mountain is a government project, complete with massive cost overruns, delays and serious problems? Yet, now they think it will somehow work?
Unfortunately, a few of our state’s Republican politicians have started talking in ways that have eroded Nevada’s once solid political opposition and they seem to be leaving the door open for it. They talk about it creating jobs and being an economic engine, but that’s nothing more than a fantasy. (How many people does it take to baby-sit nuclear waste? And are researchers really going to uproot their labs for Yucca Mountain? Please.)
Those politicians should understand a basic fact: Nevadans don’t want the dump. For too many years, the nation has followed an incredibly expensive and unworkable path to try to deal with nuclear waste. The blue-ribbon panel is correct in seeing that it’s time to go another way.
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This now puts to rest the lies that the Sun and Reid have been spinning.
The key points from the report that Obama and Reid sponsored
- No evidence that Yucca Mountain is unsafe and the NRC should complete their licensing safe evaluation report
- Transportation of nuclear waste is totally safe and will be sent to a interim storage point out in the open
- a new organization should be formed to that the project is taken away from a political president and DOE
- the ratepayers money for the project that Reid and Obama stole must be restored
- that we must come up with payola to the states that want to house the repository.
Note that Romney has already proposed the offer of money to a State like New Mexico which wants the repository.
Based on the finding and the Fed Court case Yucca may well be back
In an editorial 12-4-2011 the Las Vegas Sun's brain Greenspun said "I am taking this time to interject a harsh reality".... Yucca "Is not dead and it will come back to haunt us"...."Those who profess to be fair and open on the subject of nuclear waste and Nevada's role as stooge in that process, insist that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission be allowed to determine whether Yucca Mountain is suitable. Those with half a brain know that the NRC is just a political animal ready to go to the highest bidder."..."
Re Future. Blah Blah Blah Blah. There will be no toxic dump at Yucca Mountain. It ain't coming back, and it's time you a**hole dump advocates find something else to bit*h about.
Considering the money spent on YMP, and the jobs lost, as well as all those support jobs that paid good taxes, they need to do something with YMP.
Maybe use it for some sort of waste storage like they are doing in the tunnels/pits along Hanford area.
I know alot of retirees that would appreciate a cheaper place to live out their years.
Something Japan should consider with their contaminated areas. Especially since open space is at a premium in Japan.
Even Chernobyl is re-using some areas.
And their feral animals are healthier then in the outlying regions.
SO THERE
The People of Los Alamos, New Mexico, went on CBS 60 Minutes to proclaim that they welcome, desire, invite, storing high level radioactive waste there.
It would seem to me, that the Yucca Mountain dump advocates might just have some sort of vested interest in continuing to promote the Yucca Mountain High Level Radioactive Waste Repository Project. Give it up, please. A FEDERAL Blue Ribbon Panel found it is in the best interests of all that the Citizens have a say. Imagine that!
Guess that decision will upset all those "special interests" and lobbyists who only wish to EXPLOIT for profit from this project. Nevada needs more water, so cry us a river, will you?
Blessings and Peace,
Star
YES, THE SUN is 100% correct.
Nevadans know best.
We Nevadans DO NOT WANT our beautiful state used
as a nuclear dump, PERIOD.
YUCCA WILL NEVER BE SAFE.
YUCCA IS DEAD!