Obama Moves To Shut Down Yucca Facility: Offers No Solution to Radioactive Storage

Taking It All For Granted

No surprise, we have an energy secretary who knows very little about energy policy and an administration that wants to make energy prices more expensive. Of course nuclear provides 20% of our power grid and will remain a central part of our power grid, but who cares! This is the hope and change presidency that uses the rhetoric of unity to undercut this nation payoff its supporters all the while a smile on its face.

By Steve Vogel

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 4, 2009; Page A13

More than two decades after Yucca Mountain in Nevada was selected to be the national nuclear waste repository, the controversial proposal may finally be put to rest by the Obama administration.

In keeping with a pledge President Obama made during the campaign, the budget released last week cuts off almost all funding for creating a permanent burial site for a large portion of the nation's radioactive nuclear waste at the site in the Nevada desert. Congress selected the location in 1987 and reaffirmed the choice in 2002. About $7.7 billion has been sunk into the project since its inception.

"Yucca Mountain is not an option, and the budget clearly reflects that," Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, said yesterday.

Of course Harry Reid is happy, as for where to put the waste:

Less clear is what will happen next with the nation's growing stockpile of nuclear waste."That's a great question," said Geoffrey H. Fettus, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Most of the materials will be maintained on site for now, of course scattering the material across the country instead of having one centrally located site is a greater environmental and security threat, but that doesn't trouble the President.