Yucca Mountain: A five-mile tunnel of love?

In a story this morning about the Yucca Mountain Project, Politico reporter Erika Lovley pointed out that with the Obama administration looking to shelve the Nevada nuclear waste site, all that may be left is "a $10 billion hole in the ground."

So the reporter asked around what should be done with the 5-mile exploratory tunnel that the Department of Energy has carved into the mountainside.

“Maybe they can put the Obama Presidential Library down there,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

“They could turn it into a giant Tunnel of Love,” said Stanford professor Burton Richter. “When I was a kid, you could take your girlfriend floating down the Tunnel of Love and do some necking, as we called it. Yucca would give you five miles of tunnel — that’s some serious necking.”

Elliott Negin, spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists: “Maybe we can put Rush Limbaugh in there. I don’t think it will contain him though. He’s such a force.”

Lisa Mascaro, our colleague from the Las Vegas Sun, recalled that Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., once told her the tunnel would end up "a giant wine cellar."

Of course, some folks had serious ideas.

Politico reported Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., suggested locating a renewable energy lab there. And Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the site should be coated with solar panels, although transmitting the energy to Las Vegas would pose a challenge.

Do Political Eye readers have any creative ideas of what should be done with the Yucca tunnel if the Obama administration dumps the program? Send them to me at STetreault@stephensmedia.com and I will post them in a followup.