Yucca Mountain

The proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is never going to open. That is why I am working on real long-term solutions to the 60,000 tons of waste that nuclear power plants have generated. My highest priority is to ensure the health and safety of Nevadans, and this includes keeping the most toxic substance known to man out of our state and off our roads.

I have successfully fought against the proposal to store nuclear waste in Nevada for over two decades because it threatened the health and safety of Nevadans and people across our nation. The Department of Energy has used science that is incomplete, unsound, and riddled with politics to sell this dead-end proposal, and Nevadans are not convinced. Yucca Mountain, which is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is simply not a secure site to store nuclear waste.


Making the Federal Government Accountable for Nuclear Waste Storage
Federal law required the government to take ownership of commercial nuclear waste in 1998. Nine years later, tens-of-thousands of tons of nuclear waste remains in private hands. Worse, two thousand tons of additional spent nuclear fuel is generated each year. This is an unacceptable situation.

While Yucca Mountain is not the answer to nuclear waste storage, America still needs a solution. That is why I worked with Senator John Ensign on bipartisan legislation that would require the Department of Energy to take ownership of nuclear waste and to store it at nuclear power plants where it is produced. The Federal Accountability for Nuclear Waste Storage Act of 2007 would eliminate the need for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. At the same time, it would mandate that waste be stored in dry-cask storage containers, with a long and proven record of safety, for at least a century.

On site storage in dry-casks will give our country enough time to find a safe and scientifically valid solution to managing the thousands of tons of nuclear waste created each year. And I am committed to working with the nation’s best scientists, geologists, and engineers to develop these solutions.

Click here for more information on the Federal Accountability for Nuclear Waste Storage Act of 2007.


A Declaration of Failure on Yucca Mountain
After two decades of feeding the country misinformation and voodoo science in order to convince us that the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain is a plausible solution, it is clear that this project is not based on legal, political, or scientific reality.

That is why the Administration has proposed the Nuclear Fuel Management and Disposal Act. This bill is a last ditch attempt to resuscitate a dying beast. Realizing that the Yucca Mountain project faces a laundry list of scientific, technical, public health, legal, and safety problems, the Department of Energy has given Congress a bill to gut America’s public health standards, change long-standing public land use laws, and expedite licensing procedures. Asking our nation to lower our health and safety standards so the government may salvage the Yucca Mountain project is a laughable request. I can assure you that this will not happen while I am the Senate Majority Leader.

Recently the DOE raised the price tag to $90 billion, that’s an increase of $32 billion from its original estimate. The plans for a waste dump at Yucca Mountain are riddled with faults and it is abundantly clear that these problems cannot be fixed by simply shoveling more money at it.


Transporting Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain – Why it Cannot Happen

Caliente Corridor
Doors are closing fast on the Administration’s plans to use Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste dumping ground.

The Walker River Paiute Tribe, whose reservation is southeast of Reno, recently told the DOE that it could no longer consider shipping nuclear waste through their land using a route called the “Mina corridor.” Like most other Nevadans, the Tribe’s members have no interest in risking their health, security, and land for a project as terribly unpromising as the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

Without the Mina route, the DOE is close to running out of transportation options.

Now, DOE has committed to a different transportation plan – the Caliente corridor. Under this multi-billion billion plan, nuclear waste will be shipped 319 miles through Nevada – some through Las Vegas near the Strip – and within one-half mile of where 80,000 people live, work, and vacation. DOE originally turned away from the Caliente corridor to avoid controversy and save money, but the agency concedes that this is their only remaining option. It is a plan that is not only unacceptable for Nevadans; it is unacceptable for the rest of the country.

The Caliente route faces serious flooding risks. In 2005, a major flood disrupted the mainline near Caliente, damaging the tracks, and throwing a train off the rails and into the water. Directing thousands – possibly tens of thousands – of truck and rail shipments of nuclear waste on over 300 miles of land in Nevada carries an incalculable risk of catastrophe.

Click here for a map displaying the potential commercial nuclear waste shipment routes.

Yucca Mountain License Application
From trying to roll back environmental and public health standards, to stealing Nevada’s water, to hiring nuclear industry law firms with conflicts of interest to work on Yucca Mountain, the Department of Energy will stop at nothing to dump nuclear waste in Nevada. In June 2008, DOE submitted their application for construction authorization to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is based on unsound scientific information, and incomplete data –containing designs that are only 35% complete. Just because DOE asks for permission to build the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump does not mean that they will receive authorization – I will do all that I can to make sure that they do not.

For Students
The Yucca Mountain project continues to be to elicit numerous questions from interested students across the United States. The following links below might be helpful for your assignments.



 

Reno

Bruce R. Thompson
Courthouse & Federal Bldg
400 S. Virginia St, Suite 902
Reno, NV 89501
Phone: 775-686-5750
Fax: 775-686-5757

Washington DC

528 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327
Toll Free for Nevadans:
1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343)

Carson City

600 East William St, #302
Carson City, NV 89701
Phone: 775-882-REID (7343)
Fax: 775-883-1980

Las Vegas

Lloyd D. George Building
333 Las Vegas Boulevard
South, Suite 8016
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: 702-388-5020
Fax: 702-388-5030
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