Vol. 3, No. 18
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July 15, 2006
Nevada's Online State News Journal
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Reid Calls For GAO Audit Of DOE Spending At Yucca
Berkley Says Interim Plan For Waste Storage Is Stop-Gap
Nevada Senator Harry Reid (D) is calling for a Government Accounting Office (GAO) audit of the spending practices of the Department of Energy (DOE) at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Reid says that a Clark County report on how DOE spends its resources indicates that the agency is spending its money in ways not authorized by congress.
According to Reid, the county report shows that DOE is spending money on things other than what should be high priority items. The county indicates that while DOE should be working toward getting licensed, money is spent on items that would indicate the license is already in hand. Reid says that simply is wrong and wants a full audit. The House is currently looking to not put any more money in a Yucca budget while the Senate is debating creating a budget of $50 million for this fiscal year. In all it is believed that Yucca has already cost more than $8 billion and licensing is no closer today than it was 20 years ago.
Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D) has said that a proposal in the senate for interim waste storage of high level nuclear waste would still send nuclear waste to Nevada for storage at Yucca Mountain. Berkley is breaking from her democratic partner in the Senate, Harry Reid who is supporting the plan written by he and New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici. "At the end of the day," she said in a prepared statement, "this plan still calls for nuclear waste to be dumped 90 minutes from Las Vegas, so nothing has really changed, except the timetable for sending radioactive garbage to Yucca Mountain."
Berkley has been one of the strong voices against the entire concept of Yucca Mountain, and said, "The fact that the supporters of this proposal say Yucca Mountain can wait 25 more years to open only proves that the dump is no longer needed." Domenici and Reid are proposing that high level waste be temporarily stored in areas near existing nuclear energy plants, and to continue research into reusing the waste in the future.
"As I have said over and over again," Berkley stated, "we should use the existing trust fund to pay plant operators to secure nuclear waste on-site. That will keep nuclear waste off of America's roads and railways and out of Nevada." Berkley says she sees no reason to move the waste from where it is right now. Moving the waste would be dangerous and be of no benefit to anyone. "For years the nuclear industry has been falsely claiming that Yucca Mountain had to open right away, or else plants would shut down. This obvious lie was meant to create pressure on lawmakers to force radioactive waste down the throats of Nevadans."
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