Skeptical Nevadan wrote on July 07, 2008 04:07 PM: I'd be interested to learn where Mark gets his information about the rail line not having sufficient funding. Is he under the impression that the state of Nevada is expected to pay for it, because the state most assuredly would not. As in all other matters related to the repository, the state will continue to feed at the federal trough and use ratepayer funds to finance its opposition (all of our anti-Yucca state offices are funded out of this till, by the way). But they will not contribute a single dime to any effort that advances the repository.

Moreover, the rail line may be a DOE "boondoggle" (always a possibility with DOE projects), but it most definitely is not a "red herring." The rail line has been proposed with the explicit intent of using as a means of conveyance for nuclear waste, and it would certainly be complete before the opening of the repository itself.

Why don't any of you Yucca Mountain reactionaries ever read the publicly available documents describing the very subjects you so freely denounce or criticize? There is a massive DOE document devoted entirely to the proposed rail line: the geographical setting, the planned routes, the environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and so forth.

Anyone who can post a dire prediction or an aggreived editorial here can just as easily mouse-click their way to a website and download any of the relevant documents.

Instead, all we hear is incessant fear-mongering and misinformation: "They are going to ship the waste through Downtown and the Strip," "They are going to use highways through major communities," and so on, ad nauseam.

Which is to say I'm sick and tired of the whole thing: the weeping and wailing, the teeth-gnashing, the wind-baggery, and most of all the lies.

Skeptical Nevadan wrote on July 07, 2008 03:37 PM: The misinformation out there about the congressional, legal, and regulatory requirements of the Yucca Mountain Project is truly stunning. It's a sad barometer of how truly uninformed and (truth be told) lazy our citizenry are here in Nevada. On the other hand, it demonstrates the extent to which our political leadership has been able to turn this important issue into a largely successful propaganda campaign.

As the recent rulings are starting to suggest, however, propaganda will only get you so far in a system that runs on law and regulations. The rail commission that shot down Nevada's appeal is merely echoing a sentiment expressed by the NRC about the license application: our state officials can bluster and wail all they want, but in the end their legal and regulatory challenges will be judged based on legal or regulatory merit, not on hysteria and propaganda.

The point made by Tym, moreover, is a good one. We do get power from nuclear plants in CA, and as a state in this union we do share responsibility for the defense waste slated for storage in Yucca Mountain (not just the naval waste, either, but also the various waste generated by our Defense Department weapons programs stretching back to WWII).

Hellon Wheels and others laboring under the misconception that the repository is a "Republican backed plan" need to remember that politicians from both parties have always comprised a majority in favor of the repository, starting with the original Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982. Trying to politicize it as another "evil Republican scheme" is basically sinking to the level of Reid and Berkley, who will say anything to stop the repository (and I say this as a yellow-dog Democrat). The truth is that Democratic politicians in nuclear states are all too happy to support the repository.

Jason wrote on July 02, 2008 10:34 PM: Yucca Mountain is a problem that we all have to deal with, like it or not. If the funding for the rail line is there, then why can't we get Congress to pay for a rapid rail from Las Vegas to Southern California? Why can't we have Congress pay for a pipeline that runs from the Mississippi to Lake Mead? I think that if Congress wants to put nuclear waste in Nevada, we as a state, should put some demands to Congress. Why don't we ask Congress, why they can't ship the waste to AREA 51? WE already have a nuclear past, why not build upon that past, and put it in the nation's top secret area? We have detonated nuclear bombs there, why not bury the material there also, since it is contaminated anyway?

Tym wrote on July 02, 2008 12:44 PM: Doesn't Southern Nevada get 20% of it's power from the Palo Verde Nuclear plant in Arizona? So doesn't that make us at least 20% responsible? Isn't the Navy the U.S. Navy? Doesn't the U.S. include Nevada? I'm just trying to figure out how we can say that it's not OUR waste. Can someone better explain for me? Thanks!

yucca_insider wrote on July 02, 2008 11:39 AM: Ugly American, Yucca's costs are INDEED billed to nuclear power plants and the people who use nuclear electricity. It's been done through a special surcharge in their monthly utility bills since 1983.

Those fees, plus interest, amount to nearly $28 billion dollars.

A $20 billion balance is just sitting there, waiting.

Utilities have successfully sued the government for doing nothing, and those judgments come from taxpayer dollars.

So the people who have already paid and got nothing, now have to pay again.

Ugly American wrote on July 02, 2008 10:50 AM: Why should Nevada foot the risk of this when we never received the benefits? The vast majority of the waste was produced east of the Mississippi.

If the people of the state of Nevada have to accept the radioactive waste, then the people of the state of Nevada should own all the reactors that are producing it and the profits should be paid out to us not to a collection of private companies in other states.

All the costs of Yucca plus a serious insurance premium should be added to the price of the nuclear power that produced the waste and billed back to the people and companies that benefited from it.

When you do that you find that in reality nuclear power costs more than wind, geothermal or solar power.

Roger wrote on July 02, 2008 09:17 AM: What they are not telling us is that the cost of this stupid plan has risen to 8 billion and rising. Their plan is to use highways through major communities until they can build this thing. The railroad won't happen. Transporting the junk through communities won't happen. Yucca is just about dead.

Hellon Wheels wrote on July 02, 2008 08:36 AM: remember ROBERT this is a Republic backed plan...from its author Republic Senator Bennet (late of MS), to the unprecendented calling of the funding the bill to the Floor of the Senate in 2005 (?) against the wishes of the Majority Leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle, by the minority Republic Party!

Yes, the rRepublic senators overturned 50 years of senate procedure and precedent with their manuver to call the Yucca Funidng bill to the Floor for a vote!

Robert wrote on July 02, 2008 05:54 AM: What a comment Mark. You sound silly and uneducated. Remember this program existed under democrats and was funded!

Mark wrote on July 02, 2008 03:58 AM: The rail line is the DOE's own boondoggle, and a red herring for what they're really trying to do. While we should be concerned that Cheney and Bush are trying to 'railroad' Nevada, there isn't anywhere near enough money to build the rail line, permits or not, so the real issue remains one of Nevada having deadly waste from nuclear power plants in other states shoved down its throat.