YUCCA FACTS

On the eve of a presidential campaign swing through Nevada, Republican Sen. John McCain took a new tack on nuclear waste storage. Here’s what he said about Yucca Mountain in a speech in Denver yesterday…

“I would seek to establish an international repository for spent nuclear fuel that could collect and safely store materials overseas that might otherwise be reprocessed to acquire bomb-grade materials. It is even possible that such an international center could make it unnecessary to open the proposed spent nuclear fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.”

Now, I fully understand the pure politics of that statement on such a high-profile national issue in a swing state. But let’s consider, for a moment, one of the chief arguments opponents have used to oppose Yucca Mountain for years now: transportation.

Does the term “mobile Chernobyl” ring any bells?

Yes, in order to kill Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository, opponents have been trying to scare the living daylights out of the people of every state where the waste would travel on its way to Yucca. The so-called “unacceptable danger” of transporting the waste from nuclear power plants to Nevada is just too high, we’ve been told ad nauseum. Therefore, only on-site storage is an acceptable solution.

Now along comes Sen. McCain with an idea for storing the waste in another country rather than Yucca Mountain.

Question: How is it going to get there?

If it’s too dangerous to transport the waste from power plants to Yucca Mountain, wouldn’t it also be too dangerous to transport it to some international repository overseas? Don’t opponents of Yucca Mountain who have raised the transportation red herring now have to oppose an international storage site, as well, for the same reason?

Can’t wait to see how consistent everyone is on this baby!