The Inconvenient Truth about Yucca Mountain

(Randi Thompson) – Senator Reid has issued several statements recently related to Yucca Mountain that I feel compelled to dispel as myth.

Senator Reid’s truth:“Yucca is dead.”

The Inconvenient Truth
The law of the land, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, states that the Department of Energy shall take possession of nuclear spent fuel and store it at Yucca Mountain. That law has not changed. All Senator Reid has done is cut funds to the project, increasing its cost, delaying the government’s legal obligations, and costing 1500 Nevadans their jobs.

Senator Reid’s truth:
Designating Yucca Mountain as a nuclear repository was a political decision.

The Inconvenient Truth
True. The so called “Screw Nevada” bill was written to punish then Senator Dick Bryan (D-NV) for derailing the National Energy Strategy bill that was backed by the Senate Energy Committee.

What you don’t hear is that Yucca was the site most favored by the scientific community for a repository, prior to the writing of the Screw Nevada bill.

However, the attempt to kill Yucca is also political. If the site is truly unsafe as Senator Reid claims, he should allow the license application process to continue to prove his claim.

Senator Reid’s truth:
From his January 28, 2010, media release: “President Obama and I have worked closely to stop dumping taxpayer money into Yucca, and I have fought hard to ensure Yucca Mountain is dead.”

The Inconvenient Truth:
Taxpayer money has not been spent to build the repository at Yucca Mountain. The funds come from the users of nuclear power.

The average household has paid about $1.25 a month since the 1980’s into the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund. Those funds are designated specifically to pay for a repository at Yucca Mountain, as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. If Yucca is “dead,” then our government is collecting those funds under false pretenses. They are perpetuating a fraud on the millions of Americans who get their power from a nuclear power plant.

Senator Reid’s truth:
From his statement on January 31, 2010: “…funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain project will be eliminated and the Department will take steps to withdraw the license application in the near future.

The Inconvenient Truth
If the Department of Energy pulls the license application for Yucca, it will violate the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. It will be subject to law suits from millions of nuclear power users and nuclear power companies. It will likely have to pay back the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund the $10 billion spent to build Yucca (funds that will come from taxpayers this time.) It will be subject to law suits from several states that have agreements with the DOE. It will delay the future expansion of nuclear power, which even President Obama has endorsed in climate change and energy legislation.

For Senator Reid, his truth is that Yucca must be stopped so he can be re-elected…regardless of the national legal and economic issues associated with this truly political decision.

Then there is the inconvenient truth: A repository at Yucca is still the law of the land. Yucca is vital to meeting our nation’s growing energy needs. Yucca has proven to be the safest place in America to store spent fuel. With an operating budget of $1.5 billion a year, Yucca has positive economic aspects for Nevada… but not as just a repository.

Burying spent fuel is an outdated, stupid idea. It’s time Senator Reid used his power to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to incorporate emerging technologies that will use the spent fuel to generate power, something that is being done around the world. He should make Yucca the new nuclear test site: a place to research and develop nuclear technologies to better address spent fuel and help meet our nation’s need for clean energy.

(Ms. Thompson is Executive Director for the Alliance for Nevada’s Economic Prosperity)