A Trip to Yucca Mountain
A
bipartisan congressional delegation, led by Environment and the Economy
Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL), on Thursday traveled to the
desert of Nevada to visit the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage site.
Members came to view the repository firsthand and learn about the
history and geology of the project. Reps. Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Bob
Latta (R-OH), Cresent Hardy (R-NV), Mark Amodei (R-NV), and Dan Newhouse
(R-WA) joined Shimkus on the tour.
Congress designated Yucca Mountain 30 years ago as the site for
our nation’s long-term storage of nuclear waste, but the Obama
administration pulled the plug on the project in 2010. As of 2011, the
Government Accountability Office estimated that nearly $15 billion has
been spent toward development of the nuclear waste repository and nearly a billion more is spent each year
as the Yucca project remains stalled. Shimkus is leading an effort to
help restart Yucca Mountain, hoping to work with the state of Nevada and
other affected parties to identify the incentives and considerations
necessary to move the project forward and ensure the nation’s nuclear
safety and leadership.
“We look forward to moving this process forward and we look forward
to working with the state of Nevada as we try and thank them for their
hosting of a national asset,”
said Shimkus.
Click
HERE to watch Shimkus on next steps for Yucca Mountain
To view more photos of the trip, click
HERE.
To learn more about the committee’s work on Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste, click
HERE.
###
http://energycommerce.house.gov/blog/trip-yucca-mountain