Arguments Against: Former Nevada Senator Harry Reid and nearly two-thirds of the Nevada population are opposed to the completion and use of Yucca Mountain, many feeling it unfair to have to store nuclear waste when there are no nuclear power plants in Nevada. People fear accidents could occur at the facility and during transportation of nuclear waste. There is also a substantial fear the Yucca Mountain site, only 100 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada’s largest source of State income, will negatively affect tourism. What’s to Come: Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository has remained in limbo for the past eight years, but President Donald Trump and his administration are pro- Yucca, and with Senator Reid retired and a $120 million budget request on the books to continue work on the project, Yucca Mountain may receive new life barring Congressional opposition in the ever-shifting political winds. 6 One out of every three Americans lives within 50 miles of nuclear waste. That number seems improbable, but it’s true: According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, there are over 71,000 tons of nuclear waste stranded at the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors. The waste is stored throughout the country at the reactors where the waste was produced. It’s always been that way, but is there a better long-term solution for the storage of our country’s nuclear waste? The recommendation to use a geologic repository dates to 1957 when the National Academy of Sciences recommended the best means of protecting the environment and public health and safety would be to dispose of the waste in rock deep underground. That’s where Yucca Mountain comes into play. An amendment to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 established the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, a deep geological storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and other high level radioactive waste. After a long journey through Congress, the project was approved in 2002 during George W. Bush’s administration, and site construction began. However, activity at the repository site, once projected to open by March of 2017, slowed from funding cuts and eventually stopped in 2010 when Barack Obama was president. Today, the repository sits, unfinished and unfilled, a political pawn between opposing arguments. Arguments For: Proponents of the Yucca Mountain project have maintained the safety and necessity of the repository. Extensive studies consistently show Yucca Mountain to be a sound site for nuclear waste disposal, and nuclear waste disposal capability is an environmental imperative. Production, maintenance and support for the site would put many people back to work, which is especially attractive for Nevada, one state hit hard by the economic downturn. YUCCA MOUNTAIN Fighting For and Against Nevada’s NuclearWaste Land