Kennewick — Rep. Dan Newhouse is urging President Trump to change his mind on an issue important to the Tri-Cities that could put into limbo the disposal of thousands of tons of the nation’s most dangerous nuclear waste
Newhouse, R-Wash., fears the the president’s budget request expected to be released Monday will not include money to continue work to license Yucca Mountain, Nev., as the nation’s repository for high level radioactive waste.
It would be a reversal of policy for Trump, back to the Obama administration’s stand.
On Thursday Trump tweeted:
“Nevada, I hear you on Yucca Mountain and my Administration will RESPECT you! Congress and previous Administrations have long failed to find lasting solutions — my Administration is committed to exploring innovative approaches– I’m confident we can get it done!”
Trump’s re-election campaign is targeting Nevada as a battleground state it hopes to swing to Trump this year, the Associated Press reported. He lost the state in 2016.
Nevada has opposed using Yucca Mountain for disposal of much of the nation’s high level radioactive waste and used commercial nuclear power fuel.
“It is disappointing to see Yucca Mountain continued to be used as a political pawn,” Newhouse said. “I urge President Trump to reconsider this change in position.”
Congress has designated the Nevada mountain as the site to develop the deep geological repository required for disposal of high level radioactive waste.
Hanford waste to go to Nevada
That includes the high level radioactive waste, which makes up about 10 percent of the waste now held in underground tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
The waste is planned to be turned into a stable glass form at the massive vitrification plant under construction in the center of the site in Eastern Washington.
The $17 billion plant was designed to produce a waste package to meet the criteria for Yucca Mountain.
Because of that high level tank waste, no district in the United States is more dependent on Yucca Mountain than the one Newhouse represents, he said.
Hanford in Eastern Washington was used to produce plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.
Hanford also has 2,300 tons of irradiated fuel that the Department of Energy has planned to send to Yucca Mountain.
“The federal government’s commitment to the cleanup at Hanford relies on a permanent waste repository, and it is important to note that his is simply the law of the land — Yucca Mountain is the nation’s sole permanent repository for (high level radioactive) nuclear waste,” he said.
The nation has other used fuel from nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers being held until it can be disposed.
Yucca Mountain picked in ’80s
In addition to weapons waste, used commercial nuclear fuel also is planned to go to Yucca Mountain, including used fuel from the Columbia Generating Station near Richland.
In total, 39 states and 121 communities in the United States have waste or fuel intended to go to a deep geological repository.
Congress selected Yucca Mountain for the nation’s nuclear waste repository in the 1980s.
DOE submitted a construction license application, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had scheduled for review in September 2008.
In 2010, Congress continued to have bipartisan support for Yucca Mountain, but the Obama administration moved to terminate the project.
