Thread: The Three-Decade Delay of a Nuclear Waste Repository

The Three-Decade Delay of a Nuclear Waste Repository




Time for a rational, scientific solution

September 18, 2013

by Alan Caruba

There was a time when the United States was a can-do nation that built canals, bridges, railroads, and highways. Now we are a nation whose civil engineers annually report the dangers of decaying infrastructure. A perfect example of how incompetent our government has become is the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
In 1982 the U.S. Congress established a national policy to solve the problem of nuclear waste disposal. As far back as 1957, the National Academy of Sciences had recommended that the best way to address the problem was to dispose of it in deep underground rock. In 1987, Yucca Mountain in Nevada was designated as the site. It was immediately opposed by both environmentalists and others. Congress approved the site in 2002.
An Associated Press article on August 13 reported on a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruling that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had to complete the licensing progress and approve or reject the Energy Department’s application for the site.
“The court’s decision was hailed by supporters of the Yucca site, which has been the focus of a dispute that stretches back more than three decades,” reported the AP. “The government has spent an estimated $15 billion on the site but never completed it. No waste is stored there.”
The failure to open the Yucca Mountain repository is an obscenity. Instead of storing nuclear waste in the most studied piece of U.S. geography in the history of the nation, it is stored at more than seventy (70) sites around the nation. The Yucca Mountain site was supposed to begin accepting spent fuel by January 31, 1998, fifteen years ago.

The Appeals Court delivered a serious rebuke to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which has essentially been treated as a political instrument of the Obama administration. The Court said the NRC was “simply flouting the law” when it allowed the Obama administration to continue plans to close site. This is especially egregious insofar as federal law designates the site as the nation’s nuclear waste repository.

“The President may not decline to follow a statutory mandate or prohibition simply because of policy objections,” said Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh who wrote the majority (2 to 1) opinion. “It is no overstatement to say that our constitutional system of separation of powers would be significantly altered if we were to allow executive and independent agencies to disregard federal law in the manner asserted in this case by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”
It is not just the President and the NRC that will not uphold the law that Congress passed. It is has been the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada. Kim Strassel noted in an August 15 commentary that “Mr. Reid has for years single-handedly thwarted Congress’s will to create a deep storage facility…Such has been one senator’s ability to render the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, 30 years of work, and $15 billion of federal funds moot.”
The arrogance of Sen. Reid, with the support of the President, is that of imperial kings and other monarchs for whom their personal agenda outweighs the welfare of the rest of the nation. The project was abandoned in the President’s first term; in 2011 the NRC, a supposedly independent agency, allowed the shutdown to stand.
The present claim is that there is no money to move forward with the completion of Yucca Mountain and it is true that opponents in Congress, led by Sen. Reid, have cut nearly all funding in the last three years, but the court said that the NRC has about $11 million remaining for the purpose of funding a review of its safety. Congressional staffers who have seen a redacted draft of the review to date say that is safe.
Nuclear waste, the by-product of electric power generation at commercial nuclear plants and of high-level radioactive waste from reprocessed spent fuel, must be stored somewhere. Congress addressed that in 1982, more than three decades go. We are still waiting for a rational, practical solution because of politics, not science, nor common sense.
© Alan Caruba, 2013

Alan Caruba

Alan Caruba is the founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven campaigns designed to influence public opinion and policy. A veteran public relations counselor and professional writer, Caruba has emerged as a conservative voice through his weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Center’s Internet site and widely excerpted on leading sites. A member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and a charter member of the National Book Critics Circle, Caruba applies a wide-ranging knowledge of business, science, history and other topics as he examines issues that include protecting our national sovereignty, environment and immigration, education and international affairs. Caruba formerly served in the US Army, has been an advisor to corporations, trade associations, universities, and others who continue to utilize his public relations skills. He graduated from University of Miami. Caruba also finds time to offer a monthly review of the best in new fiction and nonfiction via Bookviews.Com, a popular site for news of books of merit that do not necessarily make it to the mainstream bestseller lists. He authored “Right Answers: Short Takes on Big Issues: Separating Fact from Fantasy”.


Why are they trying to shove this waste down our throats, Nevada has no nuke sites. We had the "Nevada Test Site", and people are still dying from the things they did out there. I know many who have worked out there in the past 20/30 years and they have died from Cancer... Now they want to transport this waste all across the Country through all kinds of towns, city's, and Bergs, etc. and to me the record so far clearly shows they cannot do that safely, they lie on everything they do, the trust level with these people is at 0, and they have earned that distinction......They also claim it will be "okay" buried in these casks for a thousand years, yep right, no one will be around to dispute that claim in a thousand years, then when they find out what damage it may have caused they will say oops!!!!! Go Preach to choir here boys!!! Bettor yet bury it under the WhiteHouse, then when they find out how bad that idea was they can say "WHAT DiFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE"!!!!

I am not a good little "soldier standing and saluting" as they shoot off those bombs in the desert again, those people are dead, the ones left are suffering ask them....Nevada did her fair share, bury it where it is produced. See right there they produced it with out a plan, are you impressed with that idea?? I am not!!!! Trust level is again at 0 and not in their favor. They plan to transport these waste trucks carrying the waste right through the Las Vegas area, that is a well thought out plan isn't it???? Sound Science was promised by Bush Sound Science was not done!!!!! Right there is the answer that explains why Harry Reid was elected into office. The people in Nevada also remember the Test Site and those promises...