Yucca Mountain

McCain Touts Plan at Nuke Plant That Partially Melted Down, Gave Rise to Term "China Syndrome" & Caught Fire Just This Past May

August, 2008 -- Washington, D.C.--As John McCain is paying a visit today to the Enrico Fermi nuclear generating station in Monroe, Michigan he can be expected to tout his costly plan to build 45 new nuclear plants by 2030 and 55 more after that. This plan would effectively double the number of nuclear reactors and the amount of dangerous high-level nuclear waste that would need to be transported across the country.    » read more »

April 16, 2008 -- Nevada Senator Harry Reid called on the Department of Energy (DOE) this week to recuse the law firm – Morgan Lewis & Bockius – from any additional work on Yucca Mountain because of conflicts of interest recently acknowledged by the DOE’s Inspector General. “The Department set aside the Competition in Contracting Act to give Morgan Lewis this contract, potentially worth over $100 million, in a closed no-bid process that only involved two other law firms.

Yucca Mountain: Photo courtesy DOE    » read more »

Assistance Requested With Finding Jobs For Skilled Workers

January 29, 2008 -- Washington, DC – Nevada Senator Harry Reid met today with Senator John Ensign, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, and Congressmen Jon Porter and Dean Heller to discuss a letter they sent to the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Elaine L. Chao, about layoffs at the Yucca Mountain Project.    » read more »

Bill attempts to remove all safety standards to accelerate licensing process

January 24, 2008 -- Washington, DC — Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign released the following statements about a bill being introduced in the Senate to speed up the licensing process to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. This irresponsible bill calls for nuclear waste to be shipped to Nevada and stored in Yucca Mountain for 300 years before any radiation standard whatsoever is applied to the dump.    » read more »

DOE to Miss Important Deadline

January 14, 2008 -- Las Vegas, NV -- Nevada Senator Harry Reid issued the following statement after news that the Energy Department expects to miss its deadline to file a license application for the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. For months the DOE has said the dump would be dead if it didn't file its license application by this summer. Today the agency announced it probably won't meet its own deadline because of budget cuts Reid engineered in the Senate.    » read more »

December 19, 2007 -- Washington, DC — U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada commended the passage of the omnibus appropriations bill, which included millions of dollars in funding for Nevada priorities. In addition to funding key projects, the omnibus cuts funding to the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain by more than $108 million, a 22 percent reduction.    » read more »

December 17, 2007 -- Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada announced today that in the negotiations over this year’s final appropriations bill, he was successful in cutting an additional $54.5 million from the budget for the Yucca Mountain Project. This cut, combined with the previous $50 million Reid was able to cut earlier this year, brings this year’s total Yucca Mountain budget cut to $104.5 million below the President’s request and last year’s level.    » read more »

December 13, 2007 -- Washington D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada made the following statement after learning of the release of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Quality Assurance and Engineering Assessments for the proposed nuclear waste dump:    » read more »

December 12, 2007 -- Washington, DC — U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada released the following statement today after the presiding judges approved the Department of Energy’s (DOE) certification of the Licensing Support Network (LSN) for the Yucca Mountain. This ruling is the result of a hearing held in Las Vegas last week.    » read more »

Will examine conflicts by law firm hired to complete license application

December 12, 2007 -- Washington, DC – One week ago today, Nevada's congressional delegation sent a letter to Gregory Friedman, Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Energy, requesting an investigation into the $109 million contract awarded to the law firm Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius to represent the Energy Department. Today, the congressional delegation was notified that the Inspector General will officially investigate the contract.    » read more »

Delegation urges a closer look into the law firm hired by the Energy Department for licensing procedure

December 5, 2007 -- Washington, DC –Nevada's congressional delegation sent a letter to Gregory Friedman, Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Energy, urging him to review possible conflicts of interest related to the law firm Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius’s contract with the Department of Energy to perform legal services related to licensing Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste dump.    » read more »

October 31, 2007 -- Las Vegas, NV -- Former Energy Secretary and Obama Campaign National Co-Chair Federico Peña applauded Barack Obama's consistent opposition to Yucca Mountain and his strong stand in speaking out on the issue during a conference call with reporters this afternoon.    » read more »

October 31, 2007 -- Washington, DC – At a Senate Environment and Public Works Hearing today, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed the licensing process and the status of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) radiation standard for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

A transcript of Senator Clinton’s remarks is below:    » read more »

Obama Has Consistently Opposed Yucca Mountain as a Storage Site for Nuclear Waste

October 31, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) yesterday sent the following letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) Chairman Barbara Boxer, calling on them to use today's EPW Committee hearing on Yucca Mountain to explore new alternatives for safe, long-term solutions for storing spent nuclear fuel.    » read more »

October 31, 2007 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Harry Reid testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works’ oversight hearing on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

“This was a great day for Nevada to get our concerns about the licensing process on record,” said Reid. “This is a step in the right direction that gets us that much closer to putting the final nail in the coffin that is Yucca Mountain.”    » read more »