Steve Sebelius reports that Harry Reid did his level best to fight the nuclear waste repository during his long career in Congress, stripping funds from its budget and promoting the idea of on-site storage at nuclear plants in dry casks. Reid repeatedly insisted that Yucca Mountain was closed, dead and forever destined to remain a monument to political folly, an $8 billion hole in the ground, thanks to Democrat stupidity.
According to E and E News, a draft list of questions directed to Department of Energy officials indicates the Yucca Mountain project is not dead, at least in the minds of the incoming Trump administration. A copy of the survey obtained by E and E News, which two sources confirmed was authentic, lists questions including these ... Are there statutory restrictions to restarting the Yucca Mountain project? and, Does [the DOE] have a plan to resume the Yucca Mountain license proceedings?
Not only are there no statutory restrictions to reviving Yucca Mountain, quite the opposite. Yucca is actually the law of the land, and has been since 1986, when the so-called Screw Nevada bill passed Congress and was signed by then-President Ronald Reagan, designating the ridge as the only nuclear waste repository. Since then, Yucca has been de-funded and ignored by the Obama administration, which sought instead to implement a consent-based process for finding a place to bury nuclear waste.
If the new Trump administration so desires, Yucca Mountain could make a comeback. And it appears that the Trump administration is at least considering the possibility.
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