Yucca Plan May Sway Nev. Electoral Votes

[Florida_Geek]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nevada-Stakes.html?pagewanted=print&position=
October 30, 2004
Yucca Plan May Sway Nev. Electoral Votes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:06 p.m. ET

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The key to winning Nevada's five electoral votes might lie with a ridge of volcanic rock some 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Yucca Mountain rises 4,950 feet over the Nevada desert on federal land where no one lives. Yet a Bush-approved plan to bury high-level nuclear waste there divides voters statewide and threatens President Bush's ability to win the state again.

``This is the issue that will defeat Bush in Nevada,'' said Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat polls show coasting to his fourth term. Bush won here in 2000 by 3.5 percentage points, but polls indicate the race with Sen. John Kerry is neck and neck.

..cut..

Kerry has opposed the project multiple times, including the crucial 2002 vote that solidified Yucca Mountain's future.

``When it's counted, I've voted no to waste at Yucca Mountain,'' Kerry said during an August visit to Las Vegas.

..more at AP

[wuushew]

1. Can someone explain Kerry's position on this

I know Yucca is structurally flawed but absent nuclear reprocessing and possibly buying storage space from Canada wouldn't current waste simply build up on site at the nation's nuclear power plants?

[w4rma]

2. Basically, Kerry's position is that Yucca will *not* be used as a dump

if Nevadans give him the power to make that decision. That's the policy.

[wuushew]

3. That doesn't answer the question of nuclear waste

Even locally storing waste produced in your own state does not solve the Federal issues of where all of the waste from nuclear naval vessels goes.

Since all fifty states benefit equally from the the common defense I would like to hear state rights people explain the solution to our waste disposal problem. Hopefully the answer will not include abandonment of nuclear energy since its total environmental impact is far far less than the poison spewed by the burning of fossil fuels.

[VegasWolf]

5. If you want, you can offer your own state as a burial dump! Yucca

mountain is not safe, it is built over a geologic fault.
All scientists are agreed on this point. There is also
the danger of transporting the waste through major
metropolitan areas. We don't want the nations radioactive
waste products stored in an earthquake prone area 90
miles from las vegas.

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[wuushew]

7. I would go for that

but it would take time to build such a facility. Parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan sit on very ancient and stable rock.




I just get pissed at NIMBY assholes who hold up the common good which also includes "green" projects like wind power and additional transmission lines in other states. My belief is that states rights are usually conservative and do not help the cause of national progressive movements. Some exceptions are Oregon's position on assisted suicide and California's policy and medicinal marijuana.

If I am being unduly harsh on the state of Nevada perhaps it is because 60% of the land is owned by federal government, the state was admitted as a free state just prior the civil war well below the population limit and after the silver panned out the population of Nevada was very small well into the 20th century. In the coming future of peak oil I question the wisdom and economics of maintaining large population centers in the inter-mountain west. I am not disputing the lack of desirability of the permanent use of of Yucca but rather I would like to hear why Nevada or any other state should be able to hold up a federal solution to the federal problems of energy.

[VegasWolf]

11. Ancient stable rock is a hell of a lot better than limestone!! It's

easy to say NIMBY when it's not your backyard! To repeat,
Yucca is geologically unstable. That's the science.
That's why people are upset! I'm glad you are offering
your own state, you will even be able to receive income
off it. The Fed is offering a per capita expense reimbursement
for taking on "unspecified dangers".

[CAcyclist]

21. Nuclear power is not a common good

People who promote nuclear power conveniently ignore the problems of getting rid of the radioactive waste. I would be glad to see all nuclear power plants decommissioned. We already have enough of a problem dealing with medical radioactive waste as it is.

[TaleWgnDg]

4. So are you saying that it is better to have storage in a

so-called mountain storage facility that is inefficient and quite possibly dangerous because to do otherwise at each present nuclear or other facility hazardous nuclear waste would simply pile-up?

There are only two or three options?

Not to mention, of course, the danger inclusive within the Nevada and/or Canada model that entails hazardous waste packaging and inter-state transportation via rail, highway throughout our cities and towns w/ terrorist attack potentialities . . . ??

Why not another way? A "Manhattan-type Project" that would scientifically investigate other means to handle nuclear "waste" materials?

Surely, no one should ever accept GWBush and Company's junk science indicia. After all, this administration is painting itself as America's worst due to its distorted, biased, prejudiced and down-right lies in its reports and w/i its "scientific" personnel.


. . . . . . . . .


.

[struggle4progress]

14. At one time, Congress promised a national scientific search ...

... for the most suitable site.

Then Congress decided to stick it to Nevada.

The bait was that Yucca Mountain would only be approved if it passed scientific muster.

The switch has been a continuing effort to shortcut the study and to press for predetermined conclusions.

These wastes will be hazardous for a long long time. Surely Nevada is entitled to balk a bit?

[Nevernose]

17. Other, better locations WERE identified

In Texas, for instance, and California. These states, however, have a hell of a lot more congressional votes than Nevada. Better potntial sites were also found in Vermont and Georgia.

Rather than explore these sites, congress passed the "Screw Nevada" bill, limiting the DOE's facility search to one state and one state only -- Nevada.

[CAcyclist]

19. Right and that's what it should do

Any time nuclear waste is moved, there's a chance for an accident. So the current recommendation is to store nuclear waste onsite.

[goforit]

6. Gooo Navada ...Bring in a KERRY WIN!!!!!!!

:bounce:

[liberalmuse]

8. I was a Nevadan in 2000.

People felt betrayed by Bush because he lied to them. This is a HUGE issue in Vegas. Nevada almost went for Gore, but I think they'll go for Kerry this time around.

[melody]

9. Exactly - the issue is he LIED

I live in California and go to Nevada regularly. The issue citizens are most angry about is that Bush *lied* to them about not doing it when he'd already planned to do it.

As usual...typical Bushlit.

[JPZenger]

10. Why Near Las Vegas

Considering that much of Nevada is owned by the Federal Government and is unpopulated, I can understand why the Feds wanted to use it for storing nuclear waste. However, I don't understand why they chose a location near the rapidly growing metropolitan area of Las Vegas.

One of the main issues is the transportation routes to carry the waste, which will pass through many populated areas and has a risk ot accidents or terrorist attacks.

[VegasWolf]

12. I've just moved to Nevada from the Bay Area. Chimp's lying is a big

part of the issue here, but another big part is that Yucca Mountain
is geologically unstable.

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[CAcyclist]

20. I just knew this had to be a big issue for Nevada

That's why I have had a really hard time believing that Nevada could ever go to Bush simply because of this issue.Plus I know a lot of activist Californians from the bay area moved to Nevada.

[VegasWolf]

13. An interesting story I heard after moving here is that back in

the early cold war days, the government as you know was
testing nuclear devices out in the desert. Locals
used to drive up to the top of Mt. Charleston, about 20
miles out of Vegas, and watch the explosions. People
would complain about ash like substance in the air afterwards
but the government went on the radio and told them it was
perfectly safe. What is awol's saying, "Fool the poeple once,
then, uh, uh, fool me again."

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[MADem]

15. The answer to the waste issue is SCIENCE

One man's trash is another's treasure. There is no impetus to seek out methodologies to use or reprocess nuclear waste. Hell, weecowboy ain't gonna go there, he hates to say the word nuke-yew-lar, unless it is followed by 'terrist.'

I feel strongly that clever scientists with a single, strong goal and a decent amount of government funding could SOLVE this problem for all of us. There's GOT to be a way, we just are not motivated to work this issue. But imagine if we did--we could actually make nuke power a viable option, instead of the slow, dangerous, shit producing polluter that it currently is. And the upshot is, it would be a proprietary technology, and we could make a bundle off it, while telling the Saudis to go fuck themselves.

We just have to look up and dream, like we used to. Who knows--we could all be flying in DeLoreans in our lifetime!

[VegasWolf]

16. MaDem, what a beautiful thought, how very unRepublican of

you!!!

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[stevedeshazer]

18. Sorry,

Your answer makes way too much sense. :)

Truth is, I opposed nuclear power for years. But with peak oil on the way, it's time to reduce CO2 emissions. I was never afraid of the plants themselves, but of the waste and what would happen to it. Still am.

Sooner or later we will have to deal with this issue, and science IS the answer.