Yucca’s Fate Discussed by Nye County Commissioner and Waste Repository Consultant
The fate of Yucca Mountain, and its effect on Nevada as a whole and Nye County in particular, were discussed in a television interview yesterday by Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis and Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository consultant Michael Voegele.
Voegele, speaking alongside Hollis yesterday on Nevada Newsmakers, said the attempt to withdraw the license for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is motivated by politics, not safety concerns. Having worked on the project for almost his entire career, Voegele said he did not think safety concerns were an issue.
“We felt that it could be done safely,” Voegele said. “We felt that we were following the national policy and the national laws.”
Voegele went on to say that the current administration’s policy towards Yucca Mountain goes against over 25 years of staying consistent with the laws that required the U.S. to create a nuclear waste repository.
Voegele estimated that it would take between 10 and 20 years to develop effective technology to reprocess nuclear waste instead of storing it in a repository facility. And even with that technology, Voegele said, some unusable nuclear waste would still need a place to be stored.
“It’s not clear that we have on the horizon a solution that’s going to completely obviate the need for a repository,” he said.
Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis estimated that the loss of the Yucca facility would cost Nye County about 2000 jobs along with millions of dollars in funding that so far has helped Nye County build courthouses, libraries, sewer and water projects, and a new commissioner administration office, along with providing emergency services. Without the funding, Hollis said, such projects would not have been possible.
Hollis said the state of Nevada had the opportunity to negotiate with the Department of Energy to receive funding for the Yucca Mountain facility as well, but did not take advantage of it.
“I think the state has lost millions upon millions of dollars because of their attitude [toward] Yucca Mountain,” he said.
Hollis also brought up plans that were in the works for a waste-transporting train from Reno to Yucca Mountain, which, if negotiations went as planned, would have extended all the way down to Las Vegas. This train, Hollis said, would have allowed private companies to ship goods across the state without having to use US 95.
Voegele mentioned that Nye County is looking at other uses of the Yucca Mountain facility, such as defense-related purposes or for geothermal development. However, Hollis expressed doubt that Nye County will regain the revenue lost by stopping the repository project.
No related posts.
- Career
- county
- Department of Energy
- Development
- Emergency
- Emergency Services
- funding
- libraries
- license
- lost
- michael
- mountain
- need
- Nevada
- new
- News
- Nye County
- Opportunity
- policy
- Politics
- revenue
- Safety
- Services
- sewer
- state
- State of Nevada
- Technology
- television
- U
- water
- Yucca
- geothermal
- jobs
- Las Vegas
- reno
- Yucca Mountain