Heller maintains fight to exclude Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as federal nuclear dump site

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) hailed a federal appeals court decision rejecting a Texas petition that sought to compel a licensing decision on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage project in Nevada.

“A nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain has the potential to inflict immeasurable harm on the health and safety of Nevadans and our economy, and that’s why I’m pleased with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision today to grant Nevada’s motion to dismiss,” Sen. Heller said after the court issued the ruling on June 1.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court granted a motion filed by Nevada to dismiss the Texas lawsuit, which alleged that the federal government had ignored a 2012 deadline to complete the licensing process for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site. Texas wanted a decision on the licensing process that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission temporarily suspended in 2011 after Congress eliminated funding for it during the Obama administration.

Nevada, meanwhile, had argued Texas was attempting an end run around the legislative process in efforts to shove a faulty, dangerous nuclear waste dump on the state and its residents. The 5th Circuit Appeals Court ruled there were procedural issues and threw out the Texas lawsuit.

Yucca Mountain, located roughly 90 miles from Las Vegas, is currently the only site that has been studied in detail for geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel and defense high-level waste, according to the Eureka County Yucca Mountain Information (ECYMI) Office, which has been federally designated to maintain a website updating citizens on the decisions related to the potential transportation and disposal of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has spent an estimated $8 billion studying the site and constructing an exploratory tunnel beneath Yucca Mountain – which is pretty much all that exists there now, according to the office. DOE estimates costs could reach $97 billion to construct and operate a repository at the site. Moreover, because no railroad exists to transport waste to the site, one would have to be built through Nevada to the mountain site. The estimated price tag could top $3 billion, according to the EYCMI Office.

Thus far, no federal funds have been allocated for the DOE’s proposed Yucca Mountain site, where proponents think burying the waste combined from 131 different U.S. sites would be the safest bet, while opponents of the plan say the desert mountain’s underground site isn’t a viable option to host a nuclear waste repository because the area is prone to earthquakes and even volcanic activity, according to the ECYMI Office.

Sen. Heller, who has been fighting to exclude the Nevada site as the nation’s main location for the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel, most recently led successful efforts to ensure that the U.S. Senate excluded the proposed $30 million provision to store defense nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019, H.R. 5515.

Sen. Heller had urged U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) to remove any language from the Senate version of the bill that would permit funding in the NDAA for Yucca Mountain in an April 13 letter. The U.S. House of Representatives approved H.R. 5515 on May 24, 351-66, without that provision.

“The failed Yucca Mountain project presents numerous unresolved health and safety concerns,” Sen. Heller wrote on a May 17 Facebook post after working with Senate committee members to withdraw related funding language from the bill. “The more viable path to solving our country’s nuclear waste crisis is consent-based siting.”

In applauding last week’s 5th Circuit Appeals Court’s ruling, Sen. Heller also commended Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and State Attorney General (AG) Adam Laxalt “for their diligent work to ensure that Nevada’s voice is heard to stop this failed project and I’ll continue to work with them both to kill any attempts to resuscitate Yucca Mountain.”

In press statements, both the governor and AG said they were equally pleased with the 5th Circuit’s decision, which AG Laxalt said resulted from hard-fought legal efforts in the state to protect Nevadans from “federal overreach.”

Gov. Sandoval added that Nevada officials “will continue to oppose the siting of a nuclear waste repository in our great state.”