Democrats in Congress to Slow Development of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site

Federal efforts to build an underground nuclear waste dump inside Nevada’s Yucca Mountain will slow down dramatically, said longtime project opponent Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.; see GSN, Aug. 9).

Reid, who is slated to become the Senate majority leader in January, told reporters earlier this month that he would prevent any bill supporting the project from reaching the Senate floor, and he said he would work to cut the program’s funding, the Associated Press reported.

Funds “will be cut back significantly, that’s for sure,” Reid said.

Reid appears to have support in the U.S. House, where speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has worked to slow Yucca efforts in the past, AP reported.

To address the question of how to handle the radioactive spent fuel created by U.S. nuclear power plants, Reid has backed a strategy of keeping the waste on site in dry storage containers, according to AP.

The nuclear industry and Energy Department officials have argued that the waste should be consolidated into an environmentally safe and secure facility.

“Leaving everything where it is, is not a solution to the problem, said Edward Sproat, director of the department’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

He complained that not opening Yucca Mountain would push “the solution off to future generations, which is pretty much what’s been happening with this program up until now” (Erica Werner/Boston Globe, Nov. 25).

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