Yucca Mountain stalling only delays inevitable nuclear power push
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:40 AM PDT
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E-mail this articleJuly 15 Daily News editorial
An emerging political consensus on the need to control greenhouse gas emissions and concern about the nation’s dependence on costly foreign oil have prompted the Bush administration and Congress to give nuclear energy a new look. President Bush made the construction of new nuclear power plants a priority of his second term and, more recently, Congress voted to provide almost $1 billion for various nuclear energy programs.
Assigning nuclear power a larger role in the nation’s energy future is only sensible. There seems little basis for the popular fear ignited by the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. Nuclear plants can be operated safely. Indeed, nuclear power provides nearly 80 percent of France's electricity needs. By comparison, commercial reactors generate only 20 percent of U.S. electricity.
The last application for a new reactor in the United States was filed 35 years ago. Despite the apparent political consensus on jump-starting the country’s moribund nuclear power industry, we’re not optimistic that commercial utilities will soon be rushing to build new plants. Congressional leaders don’t appear to understand that the dawn of a new era of nuclear power is contingent upon the federal government honoring its promise to take possession of radioactive waste left over from the previous era.
Senate leaders, in particular, have shown a determination to block the construction of a national repository for nuclear waste near Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. Last week, a Senate panel cut the administration’s fiscal 2009 budget request for the project from $494.7 million to $386.5 million. If the lower figure holds, it will mark the second straight year that Congress has sliced more than $100 million from the Yucca Mountain budget. And, given Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s support of the cut, it likely will hold.
The Nevada Democrat assumed the Senate’s top leadership post in 2006, vowing to keep the nuclear waste dump out of his home state by starving it of adequate funding. So far he’s made good on that promise. The fiscal 2008 funding cut caused the government to put off some of the work planned for the year, putting the scheduled 2017 completion date in jeopardy. Another 20 percent funding cut in fiscal 2009 would almost certainly add years to that completion date.
The budget reductions are not mandated by a need to hold down federal spending. The money is available to build the waste dump. Commercial utilities have collected more than $20 billion from ratepayers over the past 20 years for the construction of this national repository.
The government’s promotion of more nuclear power is on a collision course with Congress’ failure to move forward on the construction of the waste dump in a more timely manner. As a practical matter, members must know that there can be no revival of the U.S. nuclear industry until and unless the completion of this project is assured.
TDN Bad Boy wrote on Jul 15, 2008 8:01 AM:
Atrucker wrote on Jul 15, 2008 11:17 AM:
Thare no good answers to nuclear waste , so not in my back yard is all Reid is saying . WSSP or whoops has 4 moth balled nuke plants in Washington. Who do you want to point the finger to on this folly. "
TDN Bad Boy wrote on Jul 15, 2008 11:41 AM:
Atrucker wrote on Jul 15, 2008 10:03 PM:
Yes Reid is a no person bye himself not the whole damn congress. It seems when the republicans were in you just pissed off the people , thats why they voted democrat. and Bush is so unpopular. "
TDN Bad Boy wrote on Jul 17, 2008 9:29 AM:
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