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A ‘deeply flawed project,’ Yucca Mountain isn’t the answer for nuke waste – , Aug. 4, 2011  – Las Vegas Sun  Editorial: For years, the nuclear industry and its supporters in Congress have tried to shove through plans to make Nevada a nuclear waste dump, repeatedly ignoring scientific and safety concerns.

Their plans have been frustrated over the years because of the work of Nevada’s congressional delegation, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Now, the plans to put waste in Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, are on the verge of being extinguished. President Barack Obama has ordered his administration to quit work on it, and he created a blue ribbon commission to study alternatives for the nation’s nuclear waste.

The nuclear power industry and its supporters in Congress, however, have continued to try to push the plans forward. They should pay attention to the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future that Obama created to study how the nation should store its nuclear waste. The commission’s draft report issued last week called Yucca Mountain a “deeply flawed project.” That is putting it mildly. What has been suggested by nuclear power industry supporters is foolish and dangerous.

Under the Yucca Mountain plan, the Energy Department would send more than 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the country via trucks, trains and barges. The shipments would last for decades, exposing generations to the deadly radioactive waste. The waste would be taken past most of the nation’s population, passing through cities and towns. It would then be shoved into Yucca Mountain — a volcanic ridge in an earthquake-prone area…..

Unfortunately, supporters of the plan for Yucca Mountain have continued their push. They even argue that the opposition to the dump is political. As we have noted before, the real politics have come in the way Congress and the nuclear industry chose Yucca Mountain. In the 1980s, Congress short-circuited a scientific search to determine a suitable way to dispose of nuclear waste. Nevada was an easy choice: It had little power in Congress at the time.

The blue ribbon commission’s draft report suggested that pushing the nuclear dump on Nevada was a mistake. It pointed to a nuclear waste plant in New Mexico as a comparison, noting that there was strong support in that state for the project. Nevadans, however, stand strongly against Yucca Mountain….

A ‘deeply flawed project,’ Yucca Mountain isn’t the answer for nuke waste – Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011 | 2 a.m. – Las Vegas Sun

August 5, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes