Ok, now that I have your attention, I really do feel that way. The fact of the matter is that no matter how Nevadans feel about it, the waste is highly likely to end up here. Both of the major political candidates support Yucca Mountain and the money allocated towards development of the project was approved for this year’s budget, meaning that the federal government has tons of vested interest in it coming to fruition. Legal battles to block and stop waste from crossing neighboring states and from being deposited here have all thus far failed to stop the inexorable march, and instead of fighting the inevitable, the time has come to make it worth our while.
States that currently produce nuclear waste incur expenses related to storage and disposal of their waste. Nevada should capitalize on that and become the recipient of such funds. Nevada should accept waste from other states on condition that producers and the states in which they reside pay money to a corporation in our state set up to handle the waste and process it and to the state for purposes of maintaining safeguards in the state.
Not all of the spent fuel constitutes genuine waste. Once a rod falls below critical mass, there remains a significant portion of the rod that constitutes useable nuclear fuel. If Nevada could encourage and foster a partnership with industry to set up a reclamation facility, we could process much of the waste and store only those fractions that serve no useful purpose. Many isotopes are useful in science. Some byproducts are useful in military weaponry. Other byproducts can be used as fuel in different types of reactors. Let all those environmental wackos know that Nevada will lead the way in nuclear waste recycling, and since we don’t have much in the way of nuclear materials to mine, the repository becomes a renewable source of those materials for many decades to come, and we can burn for fuel in Nevada what other states deem as dross and refuse.
Once we have access to nuclear fuels in the state, it behooves us to use those fuels towards our own energy independence. With Lake Meade water levels on the decline and Las Vegas populations on the rise coupled to brownouts in Washoe County and vicinity occasioned by reliance on California for energy (can anyone still remember Enron?), it behooves Nevadans to turn to other forms of energy, and since we’ll have other places paying us to take nuclear fuel off their hands, I think we should use it and build some reactors. Hoover Dam runs about 18 inches of water through every night to generate electricity for Clark County and Kingman AZ, but a nuclear reactor in the state could provide much more energy than that, without adverse effects to the watershed.
Further stipulations are possible that can serve Nevada’s better interests. For example, we tell the government it can put it here if they release to the state some portion of federal land currently inaccessible to the state. Increased revenues to the state from the waste could lead to suspension of the state fuel tax, and we could ask the federal government to exempt NV from federal fuel tax. Furthermore, the safeguarding of waste both enroute and once it arrives creates job opportunities in Nevada. My prior suggestions create jobs in reclamation and nuclear technology which are tech jobs, which elevates our tax base, attracts those kinds of industries that cater to successful people, and provides incentives for high-tech industry to gather around a place already deeply embroiled therein.
Nevada must do something. For decades, politicians have told you that keeping the waste OUT of Nevada is in your best interests, but one way or another, it WILL end up here. You might as well get something out of it. Outlandish though these propositions may seem, they represent alternatives to some other serious problems we face. If Hoover is not enough, then what do we power our cities with? If it comes here and we get squat, then what good was all the litigation for? IN the end, compromise is better than being dictated to, and this is a fight in which we retain very few options.
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