nuclear-news

Trump govt reviving Yucca nuclear waste dump plan?

Times 29th May 2017 It may have been buried in President Trump’s first budget last week, but the irony was largely lost on the American nuclear industry and its opponents. A plan to hide nuclear waste beneath a sacred mountain in Nevada has been dusted off and is back on the table.

The Shoshone tribe has long deemed Yucca Mountain to be a holy place, but in 1987 the ridge of volcanic rock about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas suddenly became of interest to many more people when Congress decided that it should become the nation’s nuclear waste dump.

The decision met fierce local resistance and the project faltered before, in 2010 and after $15 billion had been spent, President Obama cancelled it altogether. It turns out that cancelled meant postponed. Mr Trump has proposed a levy on nuclear power providers that would fund further development of the scheme. The nuclear waste fund fee, which had been cancelled in 2014, is intended to raise $3.1 billion between 2020 and 2027. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/trump-to-hide-nuclear-waste-beneath-sacred-yucca-mountain-in-nevada-9z0hx5tqs

May 31, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general