Re: Get out and vote!

I watched the senate hearings on C-SPAN this past summer. The nuclear waste is being stored in various states around the nation by the various power plants. The Federal Government signed an agreement when these power plants were constructed that they would be responsible for the safe disposal and/or storage of the nuclear waste generated by these plants.

So, now the Federal Government has this obligation to live up to their agreements. The Federal Government would have to get the various states and/or local governments to agree to any other solution. If the best idea would be for the waste to stay where it is, all parties would have to reach an agreement.

The Federal Government thinks it is the wisest decision to have all this nuclear waste placed in tunnels under Yucca Mountain which is north of Las Vegas. Yucca Mountain has an aquifer underneath it and there have been multiple earthquakes in the area, yet the Federal Government has decided that this is safe.

The nuclear waste will be placed into heavy duty containers that hopefully will last a long time.

The Senate discussed the various methods of transportation from trains, trucks, and ships. There were objections raised about the safety of transporting this stuff across the country. The representative from Nevada was very reasonable and convincing making the case for keeping the waste where it is. He said that by the time the waste has been brought over to Yucca Mountain, just as much new nuclear waste would have been created.

However, the senate voted to approve Yucca Mountain as the storage site for this waste. They are still in the planning stages on how this is to be accomplished.

I also went to a meeting about a year ago where representatives from Nevada spoke about what was being planned for Yucca Mountain. I have collected the news articles. If you are interested, I will post some of them so you can have a clearer picture.