Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt on Monday endorsed a legislative resolution reaffirming the state’s opposition to storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
The resolution was introduced last week in the Nevada Legislature, after the White House released its fiscal 2018 budget proposal, which included $120 million for the Energy Department to advance interim storage of nuclear waste and restart licensing efforts for the mothballed repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“The Nevada Legislature calls on Rick Perry, the Secretary of Energy, to find the proposed repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain unsuitable, to abandon consideration of Yucca Mountain as a repository site, and to initiate a process whereby the nation can again engage in innovative and ultimately successful strategies for dealing with the problems of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste,” the resolution reads.
Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects on Monday also commented on the department’s draft plan for a Defense Waste Repository (DWR), stating that DOE’s commitment to consent-based siting for the DWR does not change Nevada’s opposition to Yucca Mountain.
“Governor Brian Sandoval has clearly stated that Nevada will not consent to disposal of commercial or defense spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in Nevada, whether combined or disposed separately,” the agency’s letter to DOE reads.
The Obama administration proposed the Defense Waste Repository after determining DOE needed separate storage sites for defense and commercial nuclear waste. The Trump administration has not formally declared its intentions on the project, but moving to revive the Yucca Mountain project is a strong hint.
