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Long-Running Yucca Mountain Debate Still Center of Nuclear Waste Fight, Wyoming Public Media, By NOAH GLICK • MAY 24, 2019  It’s been more than thirty years since Yucca Mountain in Nevada was picked as the nation’s nuclear waste site, and the state has been fighting the project ever since. Under President Obama, it got its wish.Fast forward to the Trump administration, and that long-running debate is back on the table……

The Western Shoshone Nation says the land is sacred and should not be poisoned. And Nevada Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen has several concerns.

“It’s hard to imagine that shipping over 5,000 truck casks of high-level nuclear waste over a span of 50 years won’t result in at least one radiological release,” she says.

Not to mention, she says that Yucca Mountain is next to the nation’s largest Air Force live munitions testing area.

“So does it really make sense to transport and store our nation’s nuclear waste right next to a military bombing range?” she asks.

There’s also a big elephant in the room: trust–or lack of it. Abby Johnson works with neighboring Eureka County, which is neutral on the project.

“With above and underground nuclear weapons testing, people in Nevada had already experienced being lied to by the federal government, and had had their families poisoned by fallout from the atomic bombs,” she says.

Some Nevadans are willing to move past that distrust. Darrell Lacy is the director of the Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office in Nye County. He says the site offers a chance to get federal dollars for key services.

“Transportation issues are something we talk a lot about, improved highways,” he says. “Let the federal government pay for it as part of the Yucca Mountain project.”,…..

In a 27-25 vote, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee decided against re-funding the Yucca Mountain project. But the Senate is still considering it, and supporters and opponents both say the fight isn’t over yet.

Nuclear Waste Transportation: How Does it Work? (in photos  – on original)

Spent nuclear fuel comes in small, solid pellets. These pellets are then stacked on top of each other and stored in metal tubes. The nuclear waste is stacked and stored in large, long, metal tubes. The metal tubes are then placed into large transportation casks, with layers of lead and concrete to contain the nuclear material. The transportation casks are then placed on trucks and rail lines, with shock absorbers and additional layers of concrete to keep nuclear waste still.   https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/long-running-yucca-mountain-debate-still-center-nuclear-waste-fight#stream/0