nuclear-news

Nevada fights back – resentment against becoming America’s nuclear waste dump

Federal Nuclear Dumping in Nevada Stirs Statewide Resentment, 

For decades, the federal government has treated Nevada as a radioactive waste dumping ground, now the state is fighting back U.S. News by Michael Green May 29, 2018

NEVADANS CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR THINKING THEY ARE IN AN ENDLESS LOOP OF “THE WALKING DEAD” TV SERIES. Their least-favorite zombie federal project refuses to die.

In 2010, Congress had abandoned plans to turn Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, into the nation’s only federal dump for nuclear waste so radioactive it requires permanent isolation. And the House recently voted by a wide margin to resume these efforts.

Nevada’s U.S. Sens. Dean Heller, a Republican, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, have made their determination to block the latest Yucca proposal clear since the Trump administration first proposed resurrecting the project in early 2017.

While teaching and writing about the state’s history for more than 30 years, I have followed the Yucca Mountain fight from the beginning — as well as how Nevadans’ views have evolved on all things nuclear. The project could well go forward, but I believe that it probably won’t as long as there are political benefits to stopping it.

The roots of statewide resentment

TWO-THIRDS OF NEVADANS OPPOSE THIS PLAN, according to a 2017 poll. The state’s experience with federal actions, including nuclear weapons and waste, may help explain the proposed repository’s long-standing unpopularity……. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2018-05-29/commentary-federal-nuclear-dumping-in-nevada-stirs-statewide-resentment

May 30, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA, wastes