A huge opportunity: Yucca Mountain update

A huge opportunity for residents of Nye County, indeed all of Nevada, may be opening up. After nearly three decades of misrepresentation, fear mongering and delay, Yucca Mountain and the enormous opportunities it offers may be getting back on track.

On October 16, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) released a much-delayed report — it was largely completed in 2010 — confirming that 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste can be safely stored at a Yucca Mountain repository for a million years, an absurdly long time in human terms.

The NRC, of course, is the federal agency with the final responsibility for assuring the long-term safety of a repository for high-level nuclear waste—more accurately, spent nuclear fuel. With this report, the NRC’s technical staff has given its stamp of approval on the post-closure safety of a Yucca Mountain repository. This is not surprising since the facility was designed by some of the best scientists and engineers in the world; the approval clearly represents a resounding vindication of their dedication and years of hard work.

The just-released NRC report is one of five from that agency that are required before construction of the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain can begin. Another report providing general information on the Yucca Mountain site and program was previously released. The other three reports, which presumably have been written but not released, are due out. One deals with repository safety prior to closure of the facility; another with quality assurance; and the third concerns operating characteristics of the repository. But — and this is important — the report just released is the biggie. It has the potential to be a game-changer. After all, safety is what the repository is all about!

Hearings on the five NRC reports will still have to be conducted once they have been released, and opponents will no doubt pull out all the stops to block Yucca Mountain’s construction. But the just-released report fundamentally weakens their case, mostly reducing the naysayers to squabbling and political maneuvering, which they are admittedly good at.

Restart Yucca Mountain

In its account of the NRC’s release of its safety analysis, the New York Times (10/17/14) quotes Timothy Frazier, a former Department of Energy official, as saying the just-released report makes it difficult “for someone to say that Yucca Mountain is not technically acceptable.” The Times article quotes Rep. John M. Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as saying the report “should only add to the bipartisan support the repository has consistently received in both the House and Senate.”

The New York Times article suggests the NRC’s report acknowledging the safety of long-term storage of spent fuel at Yucca Mountain lays the groundwork for restarting the project. This is especially so given the shift of control of the U.S. Senate to Republicans in this week’s election. It seems likely that funds will be appropriated to restart Yucca Mountain, and some of that money will surely find its way into Nye and perhaps other central Nevada counties.

OBSTRUCTIONISM

Nevada Senator Harry Reid has been the primary obstacle to the development of a Yucca Mountain repository for a long time. The facility would have opened years ago, with Nevada much the better off for it, if not for his obstructionism. Senator Reid has built his political career around doing everything he possibly could to obstruct Yucca Mountain. That has been his strategy from the beginning. Yet, despite the political power he has acquired, he has done little to further the overall interests of Nevadans. His political career is now likely heading into its twilight years; future historians will not treat him kindly.

Bright Future

Prospects of getting a Yucca Mountain repository back on track is good news. Reopening the repository program will have a significant long-term impact on Nevada’s economy, especially in central Nevada. It has the potential for an even larger impact if we in Nye County and Nevada play our cards right. I believe Yucca Mountain can impact Nevada’s future much like the discovery of silver at the Comstock in 1859 and at Tonopah in 1900. Whole new worlds of economic and social opportunity will open up.

First, the construction and operation of Yucca Mountain will generate good jobs and opportunity for a significant number of people. If the railroad for transporting nuclear waste across central Nevada to the repository is constructed, that will also create jobs and perhaps lead to the development of a number of small communities along the new railroad route. I can tell you, there are some places for a quality life out in that country, especially if better transportation were available.

Second, Nevada’s acceptance of Yucca Mountain will open the potential for one or more very large science and technology projects to be sited in the state—out of gratitude for moving forward on Yucca Mountain, among other reasons. In the mid-1980s, Nevada was informally offered the multibillion-dollar superconducting super collider “atom smasher” and a super train from Las Vegas to Los Angeles—the kind they have in China and some other countries—if the state would take the repository. Later, President Ronald Reagan’s administration offered to build a multibillion dollar nuclear medicine and nuclear research facility on the Nevada Test Site (NNSS) that would be associated with UNLV. In a few years, it was said, it would have had more Nobel Prize winners working at it than any other institution on earth. All these offers went nowhere due to anti-Yucca Mountain obstructionism. Similar big-ticket items might well be in store if Yucca Mountain gets back on track.

For about 10 years beginning in 1983, Steve Bradhurst was in charge of Nye County’s Yucca Mountain Repository program. Steve is a man of vision. During this time he oversaw the preparation of the complete plans for construction of a world-class science museum in Nye County. Steve has kept these plans alive and up to date all these years. They are so complete and detailed we could begin construction on the museum today. Estimated cost then was about $35 million, at least $70 million in today’s money. Senator Harry Reid once said he would try to get it funded, but of course he didn’t. I would bet the ranch that if Yucca Mountain moves forward now, that museum can become a reality!

Third, Yucca Mountain can serve as a magnet, a seedbed to draw in and grow nuclear power research and development in the state. It is probably safe to say that the future of the human race lies in capturing the power locked in the atom and not in the chemistry between atoms, as with fossil fuels or in the so-called renewables—solar, wind, and geothermal. The trajectory of human civilization over the last 10,000 years has been to use ever-larger quantities of energy, and that trend will continue. I see no way renewables will be able to keep up. Major use of fossil fuels is obviously out for several reasons. With Yucca Mountain serving as a magnet, Nevada will have the potential to become a world center for energy research.

For example, Bill Gates and fellow Microsoft billionaire Nathan Myhrvold are investing in a new type of nuclear reactor that will run on lower-grade fuel that will, among other things, reduce the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation. The idea is to build a reactor that runs on nuclear waste. They are looking to build a $5 billion prototype; China is being considered as the site for its construction. Why not build it in Nye County, on or adjoining the Nevada Test Site? Why not make central Nevada the No. 1 spot in the world for development and construction of new and better types of nuclear reactors? It’s coming; let’s do it here.

Fourth, with an emphasis on nuclear power, the area around the Test Site can become a center for the production of commercial nuclear power for distribution throughout the western United States. For example, why not replace the power from the San Onofre and Diablo Canyon reactors in California—the former now closed and Californians not wanting Diablo Canyon—with clean nuclear power from central Nevada instead of fossil fuel, as is now the case with San Onofre?

And, we may soon need to significantly increase our overall power production. Should the drought in California and Nevada be “permanent,” California and even southern Nevada may have to move to desalinization of seawater if dense occupation is to continue. Central Nevada could supply nuclear power for desalinization on the coast and for pumping the water to users.

Conclusion

Optimistic reports about finally getting Yucca Mountain back on track point to a more prosperous future in central Nevada, bringing a better life not only for those living here today but for future generations. After all, building a better life is what the history of the American West has been all about.