Reid's Defeat Will Revive Nuke Industry

Harry Reid's name may be on the ballot, but the real winner or loser of November's U.S. Senate election in Nevada may be the U.S. nuclear power industry.

Harry Reid's name may be on the ballot, but the real winner or loser of November's U.S. Senate election in Nevada may be the U.S. nuclear power industry.

In 1987, Congress and the U.S. Department of Energy identified Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the country's most suitable location for a nuclear waste repository. Over the subsequent 23 years, the country has spent $10 billion preparing the site.

Through all that time, Harry Reid - first elected to the Senate in 1986 - has relentlessly opposed the project. Reid's elevation to Majority Leader and President Obama's election to the presidency seemed for a time to have killed it outright. The 2010 federal budget eliminated federal funding of Yucca. Federal energy secretary Steven Chu has said that the Yucca facility has ceased to be an option.

Or has it?

Yucca still commands considerable support in Congress. In the words of one supporter, Rep. Jay Inslee (D., Wash) "taxpayers have already spent more than $10 billion on Yucca Mountain, compiling 20 years of data that inform us that this is the best choice to securely store tons of nuclear waste. Keeping waste scattered across the country, or in the case of Washington State, at Hanford, is no longer an option." Inslee is joined by Republican Fred Upton of Michigan: “Yucca Mountain still has the scientific seal of approval," Upton spokesperson Sean Bonyun tells FrumForum. "We’ve had a drastic shift in policy with this administration, but moving forwards, this issue is not going away.”

To ensure the issue does not go away, Inslee and Upton have prevailed upon the Department of Energy to condense and preserve all of the previously dispersed scientific research and data regarding Yucca. In the event that the political winds shift - if for example Sen. Reid loses in November - Yucca can proceed from where it left off. Project opponents will be prevented from calling for still more time to conduct still further research.

Reid rival Sharron Angle has in the past supported the Yucca Mountain project, especially if joined to some kind of reprocessing facility. If she defeats Reid in November, Yucca may return from the dead - and a reviving U.S. nuclear industry will have crossed another green light.