Letter to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Letter to the Editor

Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev, and others of the anti-Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, are doing the great state of Nevada, and southern Nevada in particular, a great disservice. Clearly with unemployment at a record high since the Great Depression, and state funding for education being asked to take another 10% cut, moving forward with the repository could be a great boon for the area and the State. Senator Reid, and others, have not considered how a change in the mission of the repository could be used to bring hundreds of millions of dollars and many jobs into the area, as well as bolster higher education initiatives here in southern Nevada. The nation suffers from inadequate supplies of cheap energy—energy needed to drive industry, commerce, and improve our overall quality of life. While much is said about “green” energy initiatives and programs, use of nuclear power has been almost absent from the discussion until the President mentioned it in his State of The Union Address. Locally, most individuals do not realize that most nuclear waste can be recycled into useful fuel for reactors and that the U.S. has taken only baby steps toward other possible uses for spent nuclear fuel. Brining the waste product here and converting the mission of the repository to one of recycling and new use engineering efforts could lay the foundation for whole new industries attracting worldwide interest, not to mention a healthy flow of dollars for our economy, and funding for UNLV for scientific research. What limitations are currently known about spent nuclear fuel are minor compared to what many in nuclear science believe we can do with the waste as a recycled material. That southern Nevada could be the home of a new science and vibrant industry has apparently never crossed the minds of our elected representatives or those who argue for increase industry and tax diversification for a languishing state. Perhaps we should begin to think outside the box on this issue, recognize and use the investment made in Yucca Mountain thus far to our mutual advantage and challenge ourselves to make something very useful out of something very problematic. We went to the moon in a decade of intense and dedicated effort having little of the science or know how when the quest began. Is it not possible to repeat such an effort focused on nuclear waste?