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Yucca Mountain is located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Monday, Jan. 21, 2013 | 11:40 a.m.
CARSON CITY — The state says it is close to winning its long battle to stop high-level nuclear waste from being stored at Yucca Mountain.
The Nevada Commission on Nuclear Waste has submitted its 2012 report to Gov. Brian Sandoval and the Nevada Legislature suggesting “success is within reach” regarding the fight against nuclear waste storage.
The U.S. Department of Energy has withdrawn its application for Yucca Mountain, but there is a lawsuit pending in federal court in Washington, D.C., to force the licensing to go forward.
The suit was filed by Nye County; the states of Washington and South Carolina; Aiken County, S.C.; the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners; and three individuals from Washington state.
If the petition is granted, the state would be forced to “engage in a long, complex and extremely expensive intervention” to block the license, the commission said. A decision by the court has been put on hold until Congress acts.
In September, Congress passed and the president signed a continuing budget resolution that did not contain any money for licensing Yucca Mountain.
“Nevada has never been closer to finally prevailing in the decades-long fight to stop the defective Yucca Mountain project once and for all,” the commission’s report said.
But former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Richard Bryan, chairman of the commission, said that “at the same time, the state remains at considerable risk due to the legal and political forces that govern the national nuclear waste program.”
The federal government has spent more than $8 billion for buildings and diggings tunnels in which the waste would be stored, and alternatives must be considered for its use, the commission said.
One of the most promising alternative uses would involve defense, homeland security and information technology, which might involve data storage and emergency communications, the commission said.
Other possible uses could be a training center for first responders or a site for unmanned aerial vehicles.
LOL
Two points
- this is not government funded. The government collected to date over $30 billion from electric ratepayers - which is available if the courts direct it.
- Reid has still not changed the law - the NWPA
So why has Reid not moved the repository to New Mexico who wants it - it has been proven safe
As Future pointed out, the federal government has never spent one penny on the Yucca Mountain project. It is financed entirely by fees collected from the nuclear industry. It is not, never was, and never will be a federally-funded project. Why the writers at the Sun fail to grasp this after all these years is mind-boggling.
Depending on which source is consulted, the DOE has between $10 million and $18 million in available carryover funds remaining in the repository budget which could be used to resume the license application process.
The Sun writer did get one thing right: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has yet to rule on a mandate for the NRC continue the agency's mandatory review of the Yucca Mountain license application. No budget appropriations decisions have been made which prohibit the NRC from using available funds for this purpose.
Nevada needs Yucca mountain. Those opposed are simply jumping on the insane one's (Harry Reid) bandwagon. Our state would benefit economically which would go a long way toward improving education, housing, and jobs. If you are opposed to the project, ask yourself, "Why?". Do you know the facts are you just listening to the empty suits making political points?