Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository may still be developed

Yucca Mountain

The U.S. House of Representatives voted down two proposals to prevent development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) proposed two amendments. The first -- rejected in a 96-326 vote – would have cut a section of the bill preventing the use of funds to remove the possibility that Yucca Mountain could be used as a repository, according to The Hill. A second amendment – defeated in a 75-344 vote – would have eliminated all $150 million allocated for nuclear waste disposal and divert the funds instead toward the national deficit.

Those who voted against the amendments said it would be a waste of money to abandon the site and that the government should continue investing in a waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the article said.

The U.S. Department of Energy was ordered in May to stop collecting a fee going toward the non-existent waste site. As of May, the fund held $37 billion. President Obama withdrew the license application for the site and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not completed a safety review.

Subscribe to Nuclear Power International magazine

Copyright © 2014: PennWell Corporation  Subscribe to http://www.power-eng.com

http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2014/07/yucca-mountain-nuclear-waste-repository-may-still-be-developed.html