Legal battles preclude other uses for Yucca Mountain, report says
A Monday report from government auditors dashed hopes that the shuttered Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site could be used in future for energy research, first responder training or even as a ground-control station for unmanned aircraft systems.
The main reason, the U.S. Government Accountability Office report said, is that legal battles over the site's intended use as a burial ground for the nation's nuclear waste would hamper any alternative use proposals.
Any proposed alternative use would have to comply with state and federal regulations.
Also, upgrading the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, with electricity and infrastructure needed for alternative uses would be too costly.
More than $15 billion was spent over a quarter of a century on the site to determine whether it was suitable for nuclear waste storage before the project was abandoned by the Obama administration.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who requested the GAO report, described the 51-page document as "an important step as we begin a serious conversation about creating a new mission for the Yucca Mountain site."
"There is no money being spent to pursue a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, and there never will be in the future," Reid said in a statement.
The report mentions legal fights regarding the Obama administration's decision not to fund the project as a stumbling block. Other issues included mining claims and overlapping jurisdictions among three federal agencies at the 230-square-mile site.
One alternative suggestion was to use the site to control operations for drone spy planes, something that is done at Creech Air Force Base, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"Two experts stated that using the Yucca Mountain site as a command and control center or a command center for unmanned aerial vehicles could both be done elsewhere and with potentially fewer challenges," the report said. "For example, it would cost significantly more to use the Yucca Mountain site as a command center for these vehicles rather than using an existing military base that already has infrastructure to support personnel, such as housing, in place."
