Nuclear mattersObama official says Yucca Mountain nuclear storage site has no chance

Tunneling at Yucca Mountain // Source: freedomsphoenix.com

On Monday a senior Department of Energy official said that the long-term nuclear storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada was no longer a viable option.

Speaking at an international conference on nuclear safety in Vienna, Austria, Daniel Poneman, the deputy Energy Secretary, said, “We do not see Yucca Mountain as a solution here. It is time to turn the page and try to find a better set of solutions.”

In 2002 Congress approved Yucca Mountain as the designated long term storage site for nuclear waste from atomic reactors in the United States and preparations were under way for the deep underground facility, but in 2010 President Obama withdrew funding for the project.

Local residents, environmentalists, and Nevada politicians have long opposed the facility, while President Obama’s opposition to the site has been met with fierce criticism from lawmakers who view the lack of a long-term nuclear storage site as a threat to national security.

Nuclear waste is currently housed in special dry casks at atomic plants, which critics say are a potential target for terrorists.

“I think any policy — the success of which can only be measured over many decades — can only succeed with strong bipartisan support and strong support from the communities affected,” Poneman said.

“It was equally clear that Yucca Mountain was not going to have that kind of support,” he added.

The White House has formed a blue-ribbon task force to find alternatives to the long-term storage of radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.