The Radioactive Fruits of Reid’s Denial of Yucca Mountain
Because Yucca Mountain is in Nevada Senator Harry Reid’s stomping grounds, the project has only produced needless government spending and less security. For years, the project has been shuttered because the Reid and Obama played politics with nuclear waste. As a result, nuclear power companies sued the government because that location was where they were going to dispose their spent fissile material. So the U.S. paid out billions of dollars in legal fees. The Wall Street Journal writes, “Credit for this huge legal bill goes to Mr. Reid, who installed a handpicked aide, Gregory Jaczko, as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2009. Mr. Jaczko proceeded to do everything in his power to block the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. As a result the feds have been in breach of agreements to accept spent nuclear fuel, and the lawsuits from utilities have rolled in.” WSJ continues and says the government has spent about $50 billion on Reid and Obama’s decision. And by storing nuclear waste around the country, the Obama administration’s policies are endangering non-proliferation. In order to prevent someone from getting their hands on fissile material, you put all your eggs in one basket, and you watch that basket. More…