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Yucca funding remains zero in 2012
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Jessica Ebelhar/Las Vegas Review-Journal
The yawning maw of the north portal into Yucca Mountain can be seen on April 26 during a rare field trip to the shuttered site of a planned nuclear waste storage facility. » Buy this photo
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STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Congress for the second consecutive year is zeroing out spending for the Yucca Mountain project, the nuclear waste plan that continues to recede as government policy.
A catch-all 2012 spending bill that passed the House on Friday contained no funding for the Nevada repository site, which is shrinking in the rear-view mirror as lawmakers prepare to review new recommendations for managing highly radioactive used nuclear fuel.
The Senate was moving to complete the bill late Friday or today. Spending for Yucca Mountain was among dozens of policy issues settled in recent days as Congress prepares to complete this year's session.
"Once again, Congress will not appropriate a single dime to make Nevada the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
"Yucca Mountain was never a good idea, and it's time to move on towards real solutions that ensure Americans' health and safety," Reid said.
Reid was said to have used his influence to block the latest efforts by Republicans and some Democrats to resurrect the Yucca project, which the Obama administration terminated in 2009.
The lawmakers represent districts that are home to commercial nuclear power plants where spent fuel is kept in pools and above-ground casks and home to government reservations where millions of gallons of Cold War nuclear remnants are stored.
They charge the administration acted illegally to end the project without permission from Congress and in a move to curry favor with Reid.
For their part, Reid and other Nevada leaders who have opposed Yucca Mountain challenge whether nuclear waste could be buried safely at the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican who advocated restarting the Yucca project, was disappointed by the outcome of the budget talks, a spokesman said.
"The congressman was able to show bipartisan support for Yucca Mountain ... but the negotiations between the House and Senate were out of his control," spokesman Steve Tomaszewski said.
Shimkus, who delivered weekly House speeches this fall challenging senators to stand up to Reid, "will continue to support Yucca Mountain through personal efforts and by trying to show support by a majority," Tomaszewski said.
The action keeps the nation's nuclear waste policy in limbo at least until a commission formed by the Obama administration issues its recommendations on alternatives to Yucca Mountain. Its report is due late in January.
Propelled by Shimkus and other pro-repository lawmakers, the House this summer voted to provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy with $45 million for Yucca-related activities and a directive to resume license hearings on the repository in 2012.
The Senate declined to support any funding that could keep the program on life support. It prevailed in negotiations over the final version of a year-end spending bill that was finalized late Thursday.
The spending bill would provide $915 billion to fund a range of federal activities for which Congress failed to pass individual appropriations this year.
Earlier this month, a group of key senators who work on energy policies confirmed they have agreed to work on post-Yucca legislation for short-term and long-term nuclear waste storage. The findings of the commission would serve as a base.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., told Congressional Quarterly it is "urgently important we find a place to temporarily and permanently put the used fuel and not just stay stuck in an argument about Yucca Mountain."
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Who needs good, high paying jobs? Who cares that we have nuclear waste strewn all over the country when we could have it stored safely in one place? The important thing is that Harry Reid and his enviro-nut buddies are happy, and feel like they again stopped something productive from being accomplished in this once great nation. America is probably the only country in the world that would spend billions of taxpayer dollars digging a hole in the ground; only to then allow the lunatic leftists to stop it!....It's no wonder corporations want to move out of this insane asylum that the liberals and lawyers have given us!
proud democrat should take all that information he has "googled" and compare it with the damage caused by the transportation of flammable and caustic materials in this country. Perhaps we shouldn't ship gasoline to gas stations, oxygen to hospitals, or any other explosive and dangerous materials through the neighborhoods where we live and work. Come on people...wake up. There is an element of danger in anything we do on a daily basis but think of all the benefits of Yucca Mountain. The amount of people we could put to work and the amount of money the state would receive might just help our economic blight a little bit. This could become a huge benefit to the people in Nevada much like the Alaskan pipeline benefits the people up there that receive a direct monetary benefit.
It will end up in Yucca Mountain.
No surprise here. I think the real story is the "Defense bill has $36 million for Nellis projects". That story says "The bill also authorizes $97.6 million for the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site facility and $63.4 million for the Nevada Nuclear Security Administration.". Is that alot less than last year??? If so,, where was Harry Reid?
ghost coyote....that is hilarious
4vs1 said "where are the nuclear dead zones". That is just sad....thats what it takes for some people...these accidents were based on the small amount of current nuclear waste transportation we currently have....the amount of accidents would vastly increase should yucca mt open....not that bad is not good enough for my family
It's all about "Not in my back yard" with you people. "Anywhere but here!" How about yall man up and realize we're part of the union and may have to take one for the team every now and again?
@StephenLV -- That's right, keep that nuclear waste and gambling money back east!
It's time for people from the States with the waste to boycott Las Vegas. With all the casinos set to come on-line back east (Foxboro, South Florida, and others), that shouldn't be a problem.
@proud democrat -- From your description these "accidents" don't sound that bad. In a large majority of the cases the contamination either didn't escape the container or stayed on the surface, and these 72 "accidents" were out of how many shipments? In the four cases where contamination escaped did it destroy large cities like Shelly Berserkly claims? Where are the nuclear dead zones?
I have to say THANK YOU !!! to all that are keeping this junk OUT of my State !!!!!!!!
In a 1996 report based on Atomic Energy Commission and DOE data entitled Reported Incidents
Involving Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipments, 1949 to Present, the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects
documents 72 nuclear waste transportation accidents. Four involve accidental radioactive material
contamination beyond the vehicle (Table 1); four involve contamination confined to the vehicle (Table 2);
13 involve traffic accidents with no release or contamination; 49 involve accidental container surface
contamination; and two accidents include no description.
The report goes on to detail how these accidents led to contamination of individuals and the community....please google nuclear waste transportation accidents for more information