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Legal battles preclude other uses for Yucca Mountain, report says
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A Monday report from government auditors dashed hopes that the shuttered Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site could be used in future for energy research, first responder training or even as a ground-control station for unmanned aircraft systems.
The main reason, the U.S. Government Accountability Office report said, is that legal battles over the site's intended use as a burial ground for the nation's nuclear waste would hamper any alternative use proposals.
Any proposed alternative use would have to comply with state and federal regulations.
Also, upgrading the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, with electricity and infrastructure needed for alternative uses would be too costly.
More than $15 billion was spent over a quarter of a century on the site to determine whether it was suitable for nuclear waste storage before the project was abandoned by the Obama administration.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who requested the GAO report, described the 51-page document as "an important step as we begin a serious conversation about creating a new mission for the Yucca Mountain site."
"There is no money being spent to pursue a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, and there never will be in the future," Reid said in a statement.
The report mentions legal fights regarding the Obama administration's decision not to fund the project as a stumbling block. Other issues included mining claims and overlapping jurisdictions among three federal agencies at the 230-square-mile site.
One alternative suggestion was to use the site to control operations for drone spy planes, something that is done at Creech Air Force Base, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"Two experts stated that using the Yucca Mountain site as a command and control center or a command center for unmanned aerial vehicles could both be done elsewhere and with potentially fewer challenges," the report said. "For example, it would cost significantly more to use the Yucca Mountain site as a command center for these vehicles rather than using an existing military base that already has infrastructure to support personnel, such as housing, in place."
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John Rowe suggested storing Nuclear Waste Fund money in the Yucca Mountain repository. That may not be enough to protect it from the House Appropriations Committee. Adding some fresh nuclear waste might make it self protective.
To my fellow bloggers;
We should make a super max prison out of Yucca Mtn. Not only could we house our own criminal trash, but we could farm out and take in other states criminal trash for a price. Just an old cop reflecting,
Gordon Martines
In the Las Vegas tradition, implode it. That will make certain it never is used for nuclear fuel storage.
@RealTrials - you point out how "we got 15 billion in our economy". Really? Apparently you know nothing about what you speak because although 15 billion has been spent on the Yucca project, not all that money has come to Nevada. That is NOT how a government project works. On this project alone, funding was spent all over the country and in Europe for research, development, and skill set. Plus if we did receive all that money locally, don't you think our schools and roads would be better off? Don't you think our unemployment rates would be less since the project had the potential to employ hundreds of full time employees once the site started to actually receive the spent fuel?
By the way, any money that comes from the project doesn't go to Las Vegas alone - "our economy". It gets split between 9 counties throughout the entire state. So all of Nevada benefits not simply where the population is the largest.
Having said all that, this report was a waste of time and money because Yucca Mountain was only designed to receive spent nuclear fuel. Nothing more and nothing less.
Let's re-fund the project, hire skilled and educated folks, better our schools, and get the entire state's economy back on track. It does have to go somewhere as GhostCoyote points out. Plus there there is NO WHERE else on the planet that is best suited for the storage. This is a no brainer.
Grow pot!!!!!!!!!
Acres and acres of pot, which provides the highest return of all the crops, create a lot of jobs and revenue, legalize and tax sell and consumption in Nevada and Las Vegas will fly high again.
I'm tired of this "Not In My Backyard" BS. It has to go somewhere, why not put it in the middle of the bloody desert where no one goes anyway. As a side note, this wouldn't be necessary if politicians pulled their head out and funded projects like Molten Salt Reactors (99% efficient Thorium [cheap and common] fueled, fully scalable, half-life of decades instead of centuries and meltdown proof) instead of this wind-solar boondogle. Or maybe they're planning on letting China dominate that technology too...
Harry you will nothing to say about any thing to do with this or other important issues in 385 days.
Really Mr. Reynolds... looks like old Harry did pretty good. We got 15 billion in our economy and don't have to suck up nuclear waste on the door step of the great tourist destination in the world. WIN WIN!
Notice how not one of those proposed alternative uses for the Yucca Mountain site could ever possibly generate as many jobs for Nevadans as a fully operational nuclear waste reprocessing and storage facility. Harry proves yet again how eager he is to sacrifice Nevadans to make points with his radical environmentalist base.
Better not use Yucca for anything else. Mitt will reopen it-
http://www.usnuclearenergy.org/CANDIDATES.htm