Energy Secretary Rick Perry this week told committees in the House and Senate that reviving Yucca Mountain's application as a federal repository for nuclear waste was a “moral obligation” to the public.
“We have a moral and national security obligation to come up with a long-term solution, finding the safest repositories available,” Perry told lawmakers of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, using similar terms to address the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee On Energy and Water Development the next day.
“I understand this is a politically sensitive topic for some, but we can no longer kick the can down the road,” The Washington Times quoted Perry as saying.
Perry's appeals were directed at the 2018 fiscal year budget, which begins at the end of September. The budget for the Department of Energy (DOE) is $28 billion. It includes a resumption of Nuclear Regulatory Commission efforts to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel at a price of $110 million. Another $10 million is set aside for development of an interim storage facility that would facilitate Yucca Mountain's operations. Perry said an interim storage facility would lend practical flexibility to the concept of shipping spent fuel waste to just one destination – Yucca Mountain.
Currently, there are 77,000 tons of spent fuel held at nuclear power plants across the country at locations in 39 states. The study of Yucca Mountain as a repository has been in the works for decades – since the 1980s. In its most recent derailment, however, the Barack Obama administration put the idea aside, calling for renewed efforts to find another location for the repository.
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Bite the bullet. Make the tough call. Help the nuclear industry survive. The US nuclear industry, by design, is much safer than Russia or Japan. WE are not having nuclear disasters, so what is all the fear about? Nuclear power in the US is safe, clean, and reliable. It incorporates a highly skill work force that is good for our economy. Closing down our nuclear plants will just make us lose our technology lead in yet another area. China will take over the world market in that case.
Build a site to process the waste; from what I understand France already does it...what cannot be processed could be stored. But just not reprocessing all the nuclear waste is not prudent.
Time has come to make a final decision on this issue. If Yucca is going to be the path chosen then there will have to be a full proof safe manner of transport from the source to Yucca Mountain that will convince the most skeptical that the relative risk is acceptable. This may require roads exclusively used for this purpose. Nevada Site may be remote enough for safe storage once it is there. The expertise for monitoring for safe storage exists, along with response organizations to address nuclear emergencies. The understanding would have to be that any release of nuclear materials that are perceived to harm the public during transport would put a political end to the process and we would be back to square one.
