Another Can Carry Torch on Yucca Mountain: Reid

Retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has championed the fight against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in his state, said in a recent interview he will be happy to step away from the battle and let another carry the torch.

“I will be happy to be involved in causes, but I am not going to be the point person. Someone else can do that,” Reid told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in an interview last month. “I accept the fact that I am not who I was. (After Tuesday) I am a former senator and I am not going to try to pretend that I am still the same guy I was during the many years I was involved in public service.”

He also once again dismissed any potential for reviving the Yucca Mountain project under the Trump administration as fruitless, saying it would be an expensive, unworkable process. Sources close to the Trump transition team say his still-developing administration is exploring restarting the project licensing process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The NRC has spent about $12 million of Nuclear Waste Fund money on Yucca licensing activities since 2013, and the state of Nevada estimates DOE will need $1.7 billion in funding and the NRC $330 million in funding to carry out the licensing process that remains.