MORE ABOUT...
IN THE NEWS...
Titus urges House leaders to block any effort to revive Yucca Mountain
A Nevada lawmaker urged House leaders not to allow any last-minute funding requests to be slipped into a final spending bill that would revive the licensing process for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., sent a letter dated Nov. 28, to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and the top Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee asking them to turn away any 11th-hour funding requests by supporters of the Yucca Mountain project.
November 2, 2018
Rosen: Trump does not understand the impact of Yucca Mountain on Nevadans
While the Trump administration’s public stance on a proposal to turn Yucca Mountain into a nuclear waste dump has vacillated, the two candidates in Nevada’s high-stakes U.S. Senate race this week made their opposition clear.
November 1, 2018
Nevada officials brace for new attempt to revive Yucca Mountain
President Donald Trump has proposed funding for Yucca Mountain licensing in his past two budget requests — both approved by the House but killed by the Senate.
October 28, 2018
Democrats Seize on Trump’s Remarks About Nevada’s Yucca Nuclear Dump
Nevada Dems are calling on President Donald Trump to follow through on his new-found opposition to the construction of a nuclear waste dump outside of Las Vegas, after his top energy official said the administration still supports the Yucca Mountain project.
October 28, 2018
As Trump wavers on Yucca Mountain, nuclear waste, costs mount
The spent fuel is packed in steel and concrete containers that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and industry experts consider the safest way to hold it, but the casks require round-the-clock security, periodic monitoring and mountains of paperwork.
October 25, 2018
After Trump comments opposing Yucca, Cortez Masto asks to remove project from budget
“I think you should do things where people want them to happen, so I would be very inclined to be against it,” Trump told the Reno station after a rally in Elko. “We will be looking at it very seriously over the next few weeks, and I agree with the people of Nevada.”
October 23, 2018
Nevada Democrats urge Trump to keep Yucca Mountain mothballed
Nevada Democrats seized Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s wobble on Yucca Mountain, urging him to follow through with his campaign-season equivocation and keep the nuclear repository in Nevada in a mothballed state.
October 24, 2018
Utah Legislator Wants Colleagues' Support Opposing Yucca Mountain Repository
A Utah state senator wants his fellow lawmakers to go on record opposing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in neighboring Nevada.
October 22, 2018
What to Make of Trump’s Remarks on the Proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear-Waste Repository
More Americans should care about nuclear-waste management than actually do. That’s because it’s an issue that has cost taxpayers more than $6 billion in court battles and is on track to cost tens of billions of dollars more.
October 23, 2018
President Trump does an about-face on Yucca Mountain stance
Even after decades of debate and consideration, the idea of storing the nation's nuclear waste just 90 miles north of Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain still remains a possibility.
October 21, 2018
Rosen Urges Trump To Commit To Zeroing Out Funding For Yucca
“After repeatedly placing a target on Nevada’s back by requesting millions of dollars in his budget to turn our state into a nuclear waste dump, it’s my hope that President Trump is in fact reversing his stance on reviving Yucca Mountain,”
October 21, 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 actions and decisions involving a proposed nuclear waste repository.
October 18, 2018
NRC Hits Pause on Search for Yucca Mountain Hearing Site in Nevada
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is suspending its search for sites in Nevada that could host hearings on the license application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository until the agency has a better idea regarding whether it will need such a facility.
October 18, 2018
NRC Urges Court to Dismiss Nevada Petition Against Commissioner on Yucca Licensing
The state of Nevada has jumped the gun in seeking to force a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to recuse himself from any ruling over the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository...
October 15, 2018
Transportation Issues Disqualify Yucca Mountain, Opponent Says
A top Yucca Mountain foe warned Las Vegas business leaders Monday that the proposed nuclear waste repository would turn Southern Nevada into a transportation hub for highly radioactive material.
October 5 , 2018
Titus, Rosen see Yucca threat in DOE proposal on high-level nuclear waste
A proposed change to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) interpretation of what counts as high-level nuclear waste could result in a backdoor effort to store nuclear waste in Nevada
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.
<
>
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.
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.
September 28, 2018
Yucca poses threat to bases in Nevada
The storage and transportation of nuclear waste at the site — less than 100 miles from Las Vegas — poses a serious threat to national security because of the U.S. military bases that surround the area, Rosen said earlier this month on Nevada Newsmakers.
September 19, 2018
Letters to the editor of the Pahrump Valley Times
Tim Burke’s “Yucca Mountain Transportation Scenarios Explored,” PVT September 14, 2018, is wrong on the facts. If Yucca Mountain were built, high-level nuclear waste would be shipped through Las Vegas for 50 years...
September 20, 2018
Upton Disappointed In Lack Of Yucca Mountain Funding
The latest federal spending plan reached by Congress does not include money for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Congressman Fred Upton tells WSJM News he’d been pushing to get the Yucca Mountain project rolling again, but no dice.
September 15, 2018
Nevada Dodges Another Yucca Funding Bullet
House efforts to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain were foiled once again last week when the Senate and House approved a spending package that included funding for the Department of Energy, but did not include money for the project.
September 14, 2018
Yucca Transportation Scenarios Explored
In analyzing what is “fact or fiction” regarding the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository today we will look at rail transportation of nuclear waste and the studies done on the possible routes.
September 14, 2018
Kavanaugh on the wrong side of health care, immigration, Yucca:
Heller tossed vicious criticism at Donald Trump in 2016, only to later admit that he voted for him. He opposed the decimation of working people’s health care before voting in favor of it. He’s been a moderate and a red-blooded conservative...
September 13, 2018
Upton Working On Yucca Mountain Funding
“At the moment there is not the funding to continue to fund the Yucca Mountain site where we’ve already spent about $15 billion, and so I’m joining with a number of my colleagues to try to insert the appropriate money into the spending bill,” Upton said.
September 12, 2018
Misguided & Dangerous Yucca To Receive No Federal Funding
Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) statement following the passage of the federal appropriations legislation that includes the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs funding bills, which provides no federal funding for Yucca Mountain.
September 12, 2018
Yucca Mountain Halted Again as GOP Aims to Retain Senate
Supporters of the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada face a familiar fate despite bipartisan momentum to restart progress on the site: Once again, their hopes appear dashed by a Silver State senator.
September 12, 2018
Congressman: Political considerations derailing Yucca Mountain
A House champion of using Yucca Mountain for permanent storage of nuclear waste charged Wednesday that national energy priorities have been dashed by political calculations to...
September 12, 2018
Legal abortion, Yucca Mountain among concerns about Kavanaugh
For Senate Democrats, including Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, the calls last week to delay the Senate judiciary committee hearing to question the potential newest member of the Supreme Court were the result of many concerns.
September 10, 2018
Heller Keeps Funding to Revive Yucca Mountain Out of Reconciled Appropriations Bill Released Today
U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) today announced that he once again successfully worked to keep funding to revive Yucca Mountain out of the reconciled bill.
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...
