Let’s turn Yucca Mountain into a nuclear reprocessing center

In reference to the Sunday commentary, “More fear-mongering on Yucca Mountain”:

What if our government allowed us to use only 25 percent of every tank of gas? What if our government forced us to bury 95 percent of our energy resources? This is exactly what our politicians are doing when it comes to safe, reliable, affordable, clean, carbon-free nuclear energy.

To create power, reactor fuel must contain 3 percent to 5 percent usable uranium. Once the uranium falls below that level, the fuel must be replaced. But this spent fuel generally retains about 95 percent of the uranium it started with — and that uranium can be recycled.

The sad fact is, however, that the United States decades ago developed the technology to recapture this energy, but then barred its commercial use in 1977. We have practiced a virtual moratorium ever since, while nuclear technology has moved forward by light years.

Other countries have taken a proactive approach to nuclear power. France, for example, has safely recycled its spent nuclear fuel rods for decades.

It is a fact that nuclear recycling is safe and vastly less expensive than storage at Yucca Mountain. Nevada needs to develop a tech center/energy storage/recycling plant at Yucca Mountain.

Think about it, folks: We would have Ph.D’s in nuclear science, physics and engineering, along with other well-paid experts in various fields with resumes reaching the skies, living right here in Nevada.

Nuclear fuel reprocessing is a safe activity that should and must be part of America’s nuclear energy program. It is affordable and technologically feasible.

Let’s do it.