Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is offering details on his position on the Yucca Mountain repository, telling South Carolina media this week that states should be refunded if Nevada rejects the repository. “I think the people in Nevada should be given an offer with a financial incentive to take the nuclear waste, and if they reject that offer, I think other states can propose an offer of what they would be willing to take, based upon a certain compensation level,” he said in an interview with The Post and Courier in Charleston in advance of South Carolina’s primary, scheduled for Saturday. He added, “And if no one is willing to take the waste, then certainly those states that have been required over the years to put money into this effort should have a refund provided to them. So South Carolina would get their money back, but I think we’re wiser to collect the waste in one site than have it in multiple sites, if that’s feasible.” The approximately $26.7 billion currently in the Nuclear Waste Fund has so far mainly been the result of charges to electricity ratepayers using nuclear power and has been the subject of numerous successful lawsuits from utilities.
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