A look inside Yucca Mountain’s proposed nuclear waste storage facility
By Jeffrey Meehan Pahrump Valley Times
Jeffrey Meehan/Pahrump Valley Times
U.S. Department of Energy geologist William Boyle (left) stands next to U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill at the south portal of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain July 14, 2018. Boyle led a group of a dozen congressman at the site near Mercury.
Jeffrey Meehan/Pahrump Valley Times
A crewman works in the south portal of the proposed nuclear waste storage facility near Mercury on July 14, 2018. The U.S. Department of Energy announced completion of drilling on the 5-mile-long exploratory tunnel in April 1997.
Jeffrey Meehan/Pahrump Valley Times
Steve Womack, R-Ark. talks on Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository on July 14, 2018. Womack is one of a dozen congressman that visited the site near Mercury and is an avid supporter of bringing waste to the state.
Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., center, speaks during a congressional tour of Yucca Mountain near Mercury on Saturday, July 14, 2018. The dozen congressman on the tour believe Yucca Mountain is the solution for the country’s nuclear waste storage.
Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Wiilliam Boyle of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, center, speaks at the crest of Yucca Mountain during a congressional tour near Mercury on Saturday, July 14, 2018.
Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Members of a congressional tour make their way through the south portal of Yucca Mountain near Mercury on Saturday, July 14, 2018. A dozen congressman in support of bringing nuclear waste to Nevada along with members of the media and others went on a daylong tour of the site.
Jeffrey Meehan/Pahrump Valley Times
The Yucca Mucker (pictured) bore the tunnel for the proposed nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain. The tunnel spans five miles long and drilling was completed in 1997 at Yucca Mountain, which sits near Mercury.
Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., speaks in the south portal of Yucca Mountain during a congressional tour near Mercury on Saturday, July 14, 2018. Shimkus spearheaded legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in May to streamline restarting the licensing process on the U.S. Department of Energy’s application to build a high-level nuclear waste repository.
Jeffrey Meehan/Pahrump Valley Times
A congressional tour heads into the north portal of Yucca Mountain near Mercury on July 14, 2018. A dozen congressman from across the country toured the proposed nuclear waste storage facility; no Nevada representatives were present on the tour.
Federal lawmakers made their way to Nevada to visit the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository near Mercury.
A tour led by U.S. Department of Energy officials was held on July 14 for a dozen congressmen, who all support making the Yucca Mountain site the nation’s nuclear waste dump.
Energy Department officials led the day-long tour that included media, congressional staffers and others to show the work that has already been completed at Yucca Mountain and to talk about the potential for storing high-level nuclear waste 1,000 feet below ground for what would be tens of thousands of years.
“My goal is to bring my colleagues out here to see the site, talk to the people who have been involved with it for years, understand the science,” said John Shimkus, R-Ill., who spearheaded legislation to get Yucca Mountain moving. “It’s kind of self-explanatory when you travel out here and see the remoteness, and what’s been done so we can move forward.”
Shimkus, along with other U.S. House members on the Yucca Mountain tour, all support putting the nation’s waste at the site. The Illinois congressman led another congressional tour in 2015 to Yucca.
The majority of Nevada’s congressional delegation is opposed to bringing nuclear waste to the area. None were in attendance during the July 14 tour.
There are currently 121 communities in 39 states that house spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the U.S., according to documents from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee.
Shimkus pushed a bill through the House in May known as Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act (H.R. 3053). The legislation passed 340-72 with support from Democrats.
The bill streamlines the licensing process on the Energy Department’s application to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. It also pushes the capacity of waste to be stored at the site from 70,000 metric tons to 110,000 metric tons.
Yucca Mountain was designated as the nation’s nuclear waste repository by Congress in 1987. Drilling of the five-mile-long tunnel at the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain was completed in 1997.
Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com
