Obama Formalizes Push to Cancel Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste DumpFriday, May 8, 2009 (click here)
U.S. President Barack Obama formally asked Congress yesterday to halt decades-old plans to build a long-term nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 30).
"All funding for development of the (Yucca Mountain) facility would be eliminated, such as further land acquisition, transportation access and additional engineering," the administration's fiscal 2010 energy budget request states.
The Obama administration requested $197 million to shutter the project and "explore alternatives" for handling the nation's nuclear waste. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to establish a blue-ribbon panel that would assess various waste storage proposals and counsel the administration on which to pursue, according to the White House.
The Yucca Mountain site was intended to hold millions of pounds of hazardous waste from U.S. nuclear weapons work and atomic energy production. There are now 121 sites in 39 U.S. states that hold high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel on an interim basis, according to Reuters.
The budget proposal states "that nuclear power is -- and likely will remain -- an important source of electricity for many years to come and that how the nation deals with the dangerous byproduct of nuclear reactors is a critical question that has yet to be resolved" (Tom Doggett, Reuters, May 7).
This to raise public awareness and expose any recklessness of the nuclear energy industry. The public now has more clout in the nuclear enegy debate than they ever did before. If Americans scream it is to expensive and too dangerous they will get their way. All those Anti-Nuclear Reactor movements now have their chance to squelch the industry. They have lots of friends in the Executive Branch that would love to stop the spending on these dangerous forms of energy. We have alternatives and there is no reason to continue with technology that is over five decades OLD.
Dig the language of the Neocons. "Yucca is two FULL hours from Las Vegas." It should be more like "ONLY two full hours from Las Vegas."
Whom in the national media was actually born yesterday?
At any rate, Anti-Nuclear movements across the country can now add to their position the fact 'highly classified information' is leaked and endangers their National Security. Go, get 'em !!!
Is Yucca Dead? Just Look on Page 68 (click title to entry - thank you)
"Just outside of Las Vegas"? Reid makes it sound like the repository is going to be built in downtown Henderson. In fact, Yucca is a full two-hour drive from Las Vegas. That's about half-way to Disneyland in the middle of nowhere. "Just outside of Las Vegas." What a crock.
And "a piece of the magnificent Nevada desert"?
First of all, it's a desert, which, by definition, means it's ... a desert. Not exactly Iowa corn fields or the rainforest.
Secondly, the underground project is so far off the Highway 93/95 beatin' path that no one will ever see it unless they're taking a tour of the place.
And lastly, this "dumping ground for dangerous nuclear waste" is located right next to the Nuclear Test Site, the place where the United States government blows up nuclear weapons underground to make sure they work. So in reality, "storing dangerous nuclear waste" is pretty much the ONLY thing Yucca Mountain can be used for -- other than building a nuclear waste recycling facility and an international energy research center....
