Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams told the Board of Examiners on Tuesday that the Yucca Mountain project is nearly dead, but she also requested more money for the law firm handling Nevada’s side of the fight to ensure it doesn’t happen.
She said despite a judge’s order for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to proceed with the licensing process, there is just $11 million left in its fund. When that’s gone, without more funding the project has nowhere to go, she said.
The board approved spending up to $5 million more to fight the proposed dump 70 miles north of Las Vegas.
“I think we’re in good shape,” she told the board, consisting of the governor, secretary of state and attorney general.
Adams added that it would take an estimated $97.2 billion to complete Yucca Mountain so it can house nuclear waste.
“It’s really, really a bad site,” she said. “There’s not a facility at Yucca Mountain. It’s just a boarded-up five-mile tunnel.”
By comparison, Bob Halstead, head of the Agency for Nuclear Projects, said creating a repository in a much more stable salt dome would cost just $25 billion.
She said there are also a couple of members of the Senate looking at a new nuclear waste repository bill “that includes the concept of a consent-based site” — creating a dumpsite in a location where it’s safe and area residents want it.