Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site Killed by Senate

The long-planned Department of Energy storage repository to hold 77,000 tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel and radioactive waste is located about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Yucca Mountain has been the subject of legal challenges and concerns over transporting dangerous waste to the facility practically since the DOE began studying the site as a potential repository in 1977. Political pressures from Nevada's congressional delegation have repeatedly delayed completion of the project, since being approved as a nuclear dump site by Ronald Reagan in 1987. When Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, a longtime opponent of the repository, became the Senate Majority Leader, Yucca's eventual derailing seemed likely. Roughly $13.5 billion has been spent on Yucca to date. The House has passed a similar bill. Once reconciled with the Senate version, it will go to President Obama for his signature.