MORE ABOUT...
IN THE NEWS...
Response to the Nevada Independent article: Concerns about government bullying and safety were the top reasons for those opposing the House Yucca bill
Before turning to the assertion of “bullying,” it is meaningful to look at the assessment of safety of the Yucca Mountain site. Demonstrations of the safety of the site have been made by several National Laboratories, the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff. Although Nevada claims that the site is not safe, the State has fought every effort to have their safety concerns adjudicated in the process required by Commission regulations. Nevada’s refusal to enter into the licensing hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where technical issues are to be adjudicated, must be viewed in this light.
September 4, 2018
Sandoval on Yucca fight: ‘Pop them between the eyes’
Gov. Brian Sandoval says Nevada must become the aggressor in the fight over the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump.
"We're going to take the fight to them," he said. "I don't want to play defense any more."
September 3, 2018
Yucca Mountain would drive down Las Vegas home prices
In reference to the Aug. 21 letter to the editor supporting the building of the Yucca Mountain repository: Although an influx of good-paying, high-tech jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in
September 1, 2018
COMMENTARY: Yucca Mountain: No easy transportation, no free government money
Two recent letters to the Review-Journal suggest there are safe and easy ways to transport high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. Jim Marsh (“Nuke dump,” Aug. 21) proposes flying the waste...
August 31, 2018
Hearing set for challenge of NRC’s Yucca Mountain decisions
A federal appeals court has scheduled a briefing on Nevada’s legal challenge to Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner David Wright’s participation in decisions involving Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste storage at the proposed site, officials said Friday.
August 29, 2018
Nevada files to force NRC official’s recusal from Yucca Mountain
Nevada continued its legal attack on the Trump administration over Yucca Mountain on Wednesday, asking a federal appellate court to block an agency commissioner from participating in
August 28, 2018
Nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain discussed with congressman
During a pit stop in Aiken Tuesday, Congressman Jeff Duncan says he is all in on getting the "yucky" to Yucca Mountain.
August 25, 2018
Interstate 11 would make it easier to transport waste to Yucca Mountain
I agree with Jim Marsh’s Tuesday letter “Nuke dump.” Mr. Marsh, however, missed one significant benefit to the valley when opening Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository...
August 22, 2018
Nevada Gov. Sandoval: gear up to fight Yucca Mountain in 2019
Despite a stalemate in Congress that appears to have shelved action on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project for the year, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval urged state officials to be prepared and proactive and to take the battle to the federal government.
August 20, 2018
Not all Las Vegas businesses oppose Yucca Mountain
The Review-Journal recently reported that the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce had a delegation of 100 in Washington, D.C., lobbying against Yucca Mountain. I have been a chamber member for more...
August 16, 2018
Nevada bolstering resources for renewed Yucca fight
Nevada is shoring up two positions in its opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository that has gained steam under President Donald Trump.
August 15, 2018
Sandoval urges officials to gear up to fight Yucca Mountain in 2019
Despite a stalemate in Congress that appears to have shelved action on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project for the year, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval urged state officials to be
August 16, 2018
106.3 WORD Cover Story
Yucca Mountain
In this week's edition of the 106.3 WORD Cover Story, we take a look into Yucca Mountain and how South Carolina could possibly offload it's large amounts of nuclear waste there.
August 15, 2018
BOE Meeting
Yucca Mountain Discussion at Nevada Board of Examiners Meeting in Carson City
August 7, 2018
Innovative Solutions to Nuclear Waste Management
Most nuclear advocates, often including us here at Breakthrough, tend to dismiss the issue of nuclear waste, noting that “you could fit all of the nuclear waste in the US on a football field at a depth of less than ten yards.” But that answer is insufficient...
August 8, 2018
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monthly Status Report
Activities related to Yucca Mountain Licensing Action report for June 2018.
About This Website
About Yucca Mountain
Project Overview
This website is offered in order to shed light on the Yucca Mountain effort. First, we believe it is important to present factual information on Yucca Mountain, as opponents have made every effort to disassemble and erase its outstanding research record from the pages of history since the Obama Administration terminated the project in 2011.
Second, Yucca Mountain represents feats of engineering and scientific prowess that need to be more widely recognized. The facts need to be told.
And . . . the United States still needs a safe place to store its high-level nuclear waste.
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, located on a piece of land adjoining the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, was designed to be a deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and other high- level radioactive waste, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987.
The United States currently obtains about 20 percent of its commercial electricity from nuclear energy. Waste from the more than 60 commercial nuclear power plants operating across the country is accumulating at the rate of about 2,000 tons per year. Approximately 65,000 tons are currently in temporary storage at the sites where it was produced.
In 1987, Congress singled out Yucca Mountain, located in Nye County, Nevada, adjoining the Nevada Test Site, as the site for intensive study of long-term storage of high-level nuclear waste.
As of 2011, the nation has spent as much as $15 billion on finding a permanent storage site for its high-level nuclear waste, some $9 billion on Yucca Mountain alone. Hundreds of men and women worked on the study of Yucca Mountain for decades, including some of the best scientists in the world.
In 2011, as a result of political maneuvering, funding on Yucca Mountain and the search for a permanent storage site for high-level nuclear waste came to a halt.
Yet in 2014, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared that high-level nuclear waste could be safely stored at Yucca Mountain for at least 1 million years.
Dr. Voegele's talk outlined the history of the U.S. high-level radioactive waste disposal program, with particular focus on how Yucca Mountain was selected for the country's first nuclear waste repository. The talk provided a very good outline of the legislative history of the project, along with related court decisions through the years. He also touched on recent activities that might affect the future of Yucca Mountain. Dr. Voegele spent 40 years working in the U.S. high-level waste disposal program, most of that time on the Yucca Mountain project.
<
>
July 28, 2018
COMMENTARY: Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Yucca Mountain
Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, is bracing to run the Senate confirmation gantlet. Some of his opponents have tried to present Kavanaugh as a problem for anti-Yucca Nevada lawmakers, particularly Sen. Dean Heller, whose seat is vulnerable in November.
July 24, 2018
Plan to Restart Licensing for Yucca Mountain Dead for now
A plan to restart a licensing process to store nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain site appears to be dormant for at least the next year.
July 26, 2018
Sen. Dean Heller working to keep Yucca Mountain from reviving
Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) announced he and the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services worked together to exclude the $30 million budget for Yucca Mountain in 2019.
The USA is the world's largest producer of nuclear power, accounting for more than 30% of worldwide nuclear generation of electricity.
A single uranium fuel pellet contains the same amount of energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal or 149 gallons of oil.
In response to growing concerns over nuclear waste storage, Congress passed the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982.
The U.S. first began using nuclear power to produce electricity in 1957.
The amount of electricity produced by a multi-reactor nuclear power plant would require about 45 square miles of photovoltaic panels or about 260 square miles of wind turbines.
The intended method for providing long-term isolation of spent nuclear fuel in the U.S. and most other countries is mined geologic disposal.
As of May 2016, 30 countries worldwide are operating 444 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 63 new nuclear plants are under construction in 15 countries.
July 24, 2018
Las Vegas business leaders mount lobbying campaign against Yucca
A congressional tour of Yucca Mountain last weekend spurred Las Vegas business leaders to fan across the nation’s capital Wednesday and lobby lawmakers and the Trump administration against storing nuclear waste in Nevada.
July 23, 2018
Heller Keeps Yucca Mountain Out of Reconciled Defense Bill
On May 24, 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives approved its version of the NDAA with $30 million authorized to revive Yucca Mountain, and on June 18th, Heller announced that he successfully ensured that the U.S. Senate’s version of the bill excluded the $30 million...
July 19, 2018
Kavanaugh's 2013 ruling advancing Yucca complicates calculus for Heller
With the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to join the Supreme Court, Nevada’s senior senator must decide whether to support a nominee who issued a pivotal decision on the state’s most explosive political issue...
July 18, 2018
Kavanaugh's court decision on Yucca could be campaign issue in Nevada Senate race
Several moderate senators who may ultimately decide the fate of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, declined to go to the White House to hear President Trump make the announcement.
July 17, 2018
Duncan champions Yucca Mountain as site of nuclear respository
Nevada’s Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is more than 2,000 miles from U.S Rep. Jeff Duncan’s 3rd Congressional District, but he has emerged as one of its most vocal champions.
July 14, 2018
Shimkus frames Yucca Mountain as political, not scientific, debate during congressional tour
Inside a hot, dark tunnel in a remote part of the Nevada desert, a couple dozen congressmen, congressional staffers and federal officials stand before a large burnt orange metal door flanked by two red stoplights, one on either side.
