Knee-jerk reaction against Yucca Mountain is unfortunate

In his May 10 article “Yucca unity among players” the Review-Journal’s Gary Martin made the following observation: “Amodei’s amendment contained a hodgepodge of items, including one requiring a reprocessing study for spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain.”

Hodgepodge? Rep. Mark Amodei based his amendment on a series of proposals formulated by nuclear scientists and experts in the handling of nuclear waste intended to propel the discussion of Yucca Mountain into the 21st century (recycle it) rather than allowing it to wallow in outdated and inoperative mid-20th century arguments (bury it).

The only hodgepodge is the muddled thinking of those in the Nevada political establishment and business elite who will not listen to, let alone consider, well-established recycling processes that have been utilized in Europe for decades. This would not only solve the problem of eliminating the existing spent nuclear fuel rods currently stored in 38 sites around the country, but it would eliminate repeating this problem in the future — all while making Nevada the energy economic powerhouse of the United States.