(Nevada Gov.) Jim Gibbons (R) seen undermining a nuke-free Yucca

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/jul/19/566628070.html

It was not one of Gov. Jim Gibbons' friendlier meetings.

Earlier this month in Gibbons' office, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Bob Loux, the state's Yucca Mountain watchdog, strongly pushed the governor and his key aides to stop the U.S. Energy Department from using the state's water for drilling at the high-level nuclear waste project.

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But Gibbons, reminding those at the meeting that he's a geologist and a lawyer, rejected the concerns.

This week he continued down that path by encouraging and publicly supporting a move by State Engineer Tracy Taylor to allow the Energy Department to continue using the water for a month longer. Although Gibbons has said he was following Taylor's recommendation, sources said it was clear that Gibbons was calling the shots on the water decision.

That move was coupled with the Republican governor's replacement of Michon Mackedon, one of the most experienced and fiercest Yucca Mountain opponents on the Nevada Nuclear Projects Commission, with Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley, a well-known Yucca Mountain advocate. Late Wednesday, after Democrats and the media began pointing out her pro-dump position, the appointment was rescinded.

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just a question as you seem to be against putting it at Yucca?

they aren't afeared of the stuff...according to them, babies thrive on it.

Seriously though...

Spent fuel should be disposed in the state that generated it.

If a state doesn't want a spent fuel repository, or lacks the proper geology for a repository, they should not operate nuclear power plants - or nuclear plant owners should pay another state for the right to dispose spent fuel within their borders.

...and they (the nuclear plant owners) should pay every fucking last cent of the cost of disposal.

If they can't pay - then they can't play...



Yucca Mountain is/was a scam from Day One.

The nuclear lobby successfully got the federal government (i.e., taxpayers) to take custody of their spent fuel. Why??? because the costs of spent fuel storage and disposal would make nuclear power plants highly unprofitable.

Better pawn the stuff off on the taxpayers (AKA "suckers")

Congress (Dem and Republic alikes) foisted the national spent fuel repository on the (small politically weak) state of Nevada.

Over its strenuous objections.

This was political cowardice at its worse.

It's going to cost the state of Nevada billions of dollars in security and other costs to host the Yucca Mountain repository.

The cost of building and operating Yucca Mnt is $65 billion and counting. The DOE has stopped releasing estimates of the final costs because they don't have the foggiest...

The Nuclear Waste Fund (a 0.1 per mill tax on nuclear generated electricity) will generate only $28 billion toward the disposal of the spent fuel that the nuclear industry generated and profited from...

Who will make up the difference ($65+ billion - $28 billion)????

The taxpayers (AKA "suckers") of course.

Can you say Corporate Welfare????