The trade group for the U.S. casino industry this month, in a letter to Congress, reaffirmed its opposition to development of a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Addressing all members of the 116th Congress, the American Gaming Association noted that the long-planned underground repository would be built 90 miles from the nation’s mecca of gambling: Las Vegas.
“A problem with the transport of nuclear waste to the site, or an issue with its storage there, would bring potentially devastating consequences to local, state and national economies,” according to the letter, dated Feb. 6, which lays out the American Gaming Association’s priorities for 2019.
The Washington, D.C.-based organization noted that 42 percent of revenue in the Nevada state general fund is drawn from taxes on Nevada’s tourism industry. “[E]ven a modest decline in visitors’ perception about the region could have severe negative implications for the state’s economy and future growth,” the letter says. “We appreciate your attention to the concerns of Nevada citizens, business community and state’s congressional delegation by ensuring radioactive waste is never stored anywhere near Las Vegas.”
Congress in 1987 designated Yucca Mountain as the ultimate disposal site for the nation’s high-level radioactive waste from defense nuclear operations and spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors. The Department of Energy filed its license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008, but the Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later. The Trump administration has twice unsuccessfully asked Congress to appropriate funds to DOE and the NRC to restart the process, and issue observers expect a similar proposal in its fiscal 2020 budget plan. That appears likely to be rolled out in March, after being delayed by the recent partial shutdown of the federal government.
Opposition to Yucca Mountain is a central component of the American Gaming Association’s advocacy program.
The U.S. government’s decades-long inability to build a disposal facility for nuclear waste is “deeply frustrating” but not necessarily intractable, five nongovernmental groups Friday said in a report making the case for centrality of nuclear power in promoting clean energy.
Congress set a path for disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from commercial power plants as early as 1982, and in 1987 determined the material should be buried beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Department of Energy is in charge of this effort, but to date has not secured the license for the repository much less built it.
Still, “there are technical solutions to nuclear waste. Every expert study that has looked at the waste issue has concluded that it is technically and scientifically feasible to manage and provide for the safe, permanent disposition of these materials,” according to the report, issued by ClearPath, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, the ACCF Center for Policy Research, and the CRES Forum.
The organizations noted that disposal sites have been selected in select nations, some of which have started preparing the facilities. Other nations have turned toward reprocessing to reuse spent fuel.
While the United States should expedite a management plan for its waste, now at roughly 100,000 metric tons, the used fuel from nuclear power plants can be safely kept in hardened dry casks on-site for over a century, the report says, citing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
From The Wires
From The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Senate committee on Thursday voted in favor of legislation that could set the path for in-state disposal of depleted uranium.
From the Grand Forks, N.D. Herald: State advocacy group seeks changes to legislation that would constrain counties’ zoning authority for radioactive waste facilities.
From Reuters: Spain intends to retire its seven nuclear power plants by 2035.
From Mining Weekly: Australia’s Northern Territory passes bill on nuclear waste transport, storage, and disposal linked to energy production.
