So Sen. John Kerry has promised the people of Nevada that as president he would not allow the shipment of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain. What that means, assuming that he is elected and sticks by this promise, is that the federal government will have reneged on its promise made years ago to take all of the country’s high level waste and store it permanently in a safe repository. Since then, billions of dollars and altogether too much time have been spent to identify, prove out and develop this badly needed repository. Sen. Kerry would sacrifice it for the sake of Nevada’s five measly electoral votes.
The result of this action would be that U.S. high-level wastes would be stored “forever” where they are right now, mainly at our 100-plus nuclear power plants. (In Washington, Hanford would become the permanent location not only for the spent fuel from the Columbia Generating Station and the FFTF, but also for the wastes now in the underground tanks even after their removal and vitrification.) Although storage at these locations is now being accomplished with a high degree of safety, it simply is not a viable long-term option. Power reactor facilities, which are already badly choked up with years of accumulated waste, do not and cannot meet the requirements for permanent storage. Moreover, having the waste scattered around the country at many different locations makes it much more vulnerable to terrorist activity than if it were consolidated in the Yucca Mountain repository.
Obviously a putative President Kerry would be acting against the best interests of the nation as a whole were he to carry out his promise. If this is an example of the quality of the decisions he would make, I shudder for our country.
Clark McKee
Monroe
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