FROM THE ARCHIVES: Is Yucca Mountain Dead?

American news agencies from the Las Vegas Sun to the New York Times are reporting the demise of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project. And, honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I know how I’m supposed to feel---at least, in parts. The Democrat in me wants to follow Harry Reid and say “good riddance to bad rubbish that never actually worked.” But, the industry insider in me thinks, “Well, OK. Yucca was super flawed, but where’s the waste going to go now?”
All this fuss centers around page 65 of President Obama’s budget, which proposes the Yucca Mountain elimination and allocates lots o’ millions, instead, for the Department of Energy (DOE) to explore alternatives to the Nevada site. In fact, the 2009 United States Federal Budget, “A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America’s Promise,” proposes to eliminate funding for the repository almost entirely.

The report states, “The Budget focuses on improved performance and accountability for the environmental legacy of the Nation’s nuclear weapons program by addressing health and safety risks across the country. The Yucca Mountain program will be scaled back to those costs necessary to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, while the Administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear waste disposal.”

So, they’re killing it by not funding it. It’s a pretty common political play. And, again, the divide seems to fall a lot along party lines with this. Dems are celebrating; repubs are annoyed. The donkey dances; the elephant harrumphs.“For more than two decades, some have persistently tried to turn a piece of the magnificent Nevada desert just outside of Las Vegas into a dumping ground for dangerous nuclear waste. I am proud to say that today, with the release of President Obama’s budget, that idea is dead,” stated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) about the developments in his home state. It’s been pretty common knowledge that he hated the Yucca project for years. He hasn’t exactly made it a secret.Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) added, “President Obama is making good on the promise he made to end Yucca Mountain, and this budget takes us closer than ever before to permanently burying this $100 billion dinosaur in the Nevada desert. Support for Yucca Mountain has collapsed.”

The Republicans aren’t quiet, either. In late April, when news of this funding cutoff filtered through political channels, seventeen GOP senators wrote to Energy Secretary Chu asking for a rationale of the decision. The letter was penned by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). Former presidential candidate John McCain was among the 16 senators who signed Inhofe’s letter. The DOE stated that Inhofe will receive an answer to his letter, but no response has yet been made public by the DOE.And, just this morning, Chicago writer Dennis Bryne, penned an editorial on the Chicago Tribune’s Web site claiming that the demise of Yucca Mountain’s repository “would leave Illinois with the shaft” while the state holds onto nearly 7,000 tons of nuclear waste.“Now, the question becomes whether Illinois' Democratic senators---Dick Durbin and Roland Burris---will adequately represent the state's and nation's interests by fighting to keep the Yucca Mountain project alive,” Bryne wrote. “Ah, but you know they won't.”

Yucca Mountain was selected in 1987 as a potential repository for nuclear waste created from the process of electricity production, including spent nuclear fuel rods and solidified high-level radioactive waste. It has been a contentious subject for over 20 years and the project itself has never been completed. And that’s why I don’t know exactly how to feel. As a proponent of nuclear, I’m a little sad. But, as someone who has been in the business almost a decade---long enough to follow only half of the Yucca debate---I can’t help but think of what my grandfather would say after 20 years of wrangling and wrestling with an issue: Girl, it’s time to fish or cut bait.The Obama Administration chose to cut bait. And while I may not agree with it, while I may be wondering what that all means for nuclear energy’s future, I can’t help but agree that it was past time for a decision of some kind to be made.