U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) joined three of his House colleagues on a trip to Yucca Mountain last week to argue his case against building a nuclear waste repository on the federal property in his state.
“I visited Yucca Mountain today to ensure the information shared by the Department of Energy was as accurate as possible and to ask tough questions, holding the Department accountable to the people of Nevada,” Horsford said in a press release after the Friday site visit. “I will continue to push back on the Department’s claims that Yucca Mountain is safe and ensure my colleagues are given factual information about the dangers of nuclear waste disposal.”
Horsford represents the 4th Congressional District in Nevada, where the geologic repository would be built. Joining him on the trip were Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), and Bill Flores (R-Texas).
Peters and Levin both represent the San Diego area, home to the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), which holds about 3.5 million pounds of spent reactor fuel assemblies in wet and dry storage. The Energy Department is legally responsible for finding a permanent home for that material, along with the used fuel from all other U.S. nuclear power plants. Levin, in his first term, has been particularly assertive about safety at SONGS – including moving its radioactive waste off-site as soon as possible.
Flores is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and has been a vocal advocate of finally resolving the decades-long impasse over disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste.
The Trump administration for three successive budgets has sought funding to revive the DOE license application for Yucca Mountain before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Congress has yet to appropriate any money to resume the proceeding defunded nearly a decade ago during the Obama administration.
