US

South Carolina and Georgia coalition blasts Department of Energy on Yucca Mountain nuclear waste decision

Paul Conner Executive Editor
Font Size:

State and county leaders from South Carolina and Georgia are protesting unfulfilled promises from the federal government on disposing nuclear waste – and their voices are being heard.

A coalition of 40 officials traveled from the Southeast to Washington for a press conference Wednesday at the National Press Club, where they blasted the Department of Energy’s decision to halt progress at a Nevada nuclear waste site.

The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in southern Nevada would permanently store high-level waste currently stored temporarily at the Savannah River Site (SRS) on the South Carolina-Georgia border.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu promised early this month to continue dismantling Yucca Mountain saying, “We see no point in it.”

“Mr. Secretary, we have a message for you today. With all due respect, your decision with respect to Yucca Mountain is ill-advised and wrong-headed,” said David Jameson, president of Greater Aiken, S.C., Chamber of Commerce.

And signs show their message may be getting through.

Aiken, S.C., filed a lawsuit against Chu and the DOE on Sunday that halt the dismantling effort at the Nevada site. The U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia will hear the case. The Attorney General of Washington State filed a similar lawsuit to the same court on April 13.

In response to the suits, the DOE ordered a 21-day stoppage of the dismantling process so that the court can make their decision. The timeout will last until May 5.

Both houses of the S.C. Congress have drafted resolutions objecting to the federal government’s decision to abandon Yucca Mountain.

The coalition fears the decision to dismantle the site is political, rather than scientific. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, has strongly opposed the Yucca Mountain site, saying that shutting down the project would “protect Nevada from becoming the country’s toxic wasteland.”

“We believe the decision is political, but we are not going to get into a finger pointing situation,” Jameson said.

In March, President Barack Obama followed through on a campaign promise when the administration filed to halt work at the site. Last week, the Senate proposed the 2011 budget without any funding for the Yucca Mountain site.

In January, Chu announced the creation of a Blue Ribbon Commission to make recommendations on what how nuclear waste should be disposed, but local officials claim the DOE has ignored repeated requests to be represented on the commission.

“What the panel recommends will impact us in the nuclear communities more than any other group,” said Sue Parr, president of Augusta, Ga., Chamber of Commerce. “Fairness dictates that we have more than casual input.”

And analysts say the coalition has strong legal footing on which to stand. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 designated Yucca Mountain as the proposed site for nuclear waste from the Cold War era. In 2002, Congress approved the site, as the Act had suggested.

“The deal was that the federal government would take it and put it in Yucca Mountain,” said Jack Spencer, nuclear energy expert at the Heritage Foundation. “With the administration attempting to cancel that project, it creates some significant liability for states like South Carolina.”

A DOE spokeswoman highlighted the administration’s $8 billion loan guarantee for a nuclear power plant in Georgia as a sign the president supports nuclear energy. But the DOE reiterated its stance against Yucca Mountain’s viability.

“As Secretary Chu has said consistently, Yucca Mountain is not an option, and he looks forward to receiving the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission for the long term management of our spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste,” said Katinka Podmaniczky, DOE spokeswoman. “The Department of Energy welcomes input from our community partners at sites around the country as we move forward with these important decisions.”

Officials fear that industries that potential industries will be scared off by the nuclear waste at the Savannah River site.

“The concern is not that these facilities are not safe,” said Rick McLeod, executive for the SRS Community Reuse Organization. “The concern is that the facilities have not been evaluated for storing the material permanently.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel