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Berkley: New Gao Report Finds On-Site Storage Of Nuke Waste Cheaper Than Failed Yucca Mountain Proposal
** Reveals Taxpayers Will be Hit with Whopping 20% of Cost for Dumping Nuclear Waste in Nevada **
December 2, 2009 – Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Shelley Berkley today pointed to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighting the staggering cost of the proposed Yucca Mountain dump and the savings to taxpayers in Nevada and nationwide that will be realized by a move to secure nuclear waste utilizing on-site storage for the next 100 years.
“These findings highlight what the Nevada delegation has been saying for years about the cost of efforts to bury radioactive garbage 90 minutes from Las Vegas. Dumping Yucca Mountain and moving to safe on-site storage of nuclear waste will not only keep this waste out of Nevada and off America’s roads and railways, it also saves taxpayer dollars. While the nuclear industry claims that families in Las Vegas will not have to pay for Yucca Mountain, the GAO makes clear that one in every five dollars spent on this project would come from taxpayers, including Nevadans,” said Berkley. “Ending the drive to dump toxic nuclear garbage in Nevada and moving to dry-cask storage is the safest and most effective answer to the nuclear waste issue when we look at the next 100 years,” said Berkley.
Berkley supports keeping waste at existing sites in secure dry-cask storage, an option that is safe for a century according to regulators and safety experts.
“Keeping waste on-site will allow an expert blue ribbon panel the time to completely revisit the question of how we deal with the legacy of radioactive waste created by decades of nuclear power production. The time has also come for the nuclear industry to stop spending millions lobbying to turn Nevada into a toxic dumping ground,” said Berkley.
The Congresswoman hopes the GAO report will again shine a spotlight on the true cost of Yucca Mountain—both in real dollars and the threat to public security and the environment that it represents.
“As this report once again makes crystal clear, Yucca Mountain’s astronomical price tag alone is reason enough to abandon this dinosaur in the Nevada desert. And that’s before you focus on the real danger to 50 million Americans living along waste shipment routes and to families in Las Vegas and other Nevada communities should the proposed dump move forward,” said Berkley.
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