Ken Silverstein opines that Yucca Mountain was the site that was intended to store the 70,000 tons of radioactive nuclear waste now stored around the U.S. Yucca Mt. has lain practically unused since 2010, although it may now get a new lease on life given that the new administration has budgeted money to license it. Nuclear energy is an industry of 99 plants, but a small group of adversaries. On the one hand, it is a carbon-free fuel in a plant that can produce electricity around the clock and that has an outstanding safety record in this country. But, on the other hand, nuclear plants are expensive to build, but like dams operate for 50 years.
This month is the sixth anniversary of the Japan earthquake that caused the Fukushima facility incident and still haunts some, although no one died or was seriously irradiated at the plant site. At the same time, when nuclear fuel is used to boil water to run turbines that generate electricity, the used fuel becomes radioactive waste that must be stored, disposed of, or buried, but it may be used again in the future. While the interim solution has been to store the used fuel on site where the plants are located, most experts agree that it should all be transported to a safe and central location where it could be managed appropriately. Enter Yucca Mountain. Politically, though, that had become nearly impossible, given not only some local opposition to it but also doubtful testimony by some engineering experts have said that radioactive materials could eventually migrate into groundwater supplies.
In 2010, President Obama cut funding for the project and withdrew the application after spending billions of dollars on the project. Now, the new administration 2018 budget has allocated $120 million to finish Yucca Mt., and to indicate a show of support for nuclear energy, Reuters reports, which competes with burning coal, cheap natural gas, and with heavily subsidized, unreliable renewable energy (solar and winds systems).
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