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FacebookFeds raise Yucca price tag to $96.2 billion
Tue, Aug 5, 2008 (1:12 p.m.)
Sun Topics
Related stories
- July 16, 2008 -- Berkley's 9 minutes of defiance on Yucca
- July 15, 2008 -- Yucca Mountain price tag: $90 billion
- July 8, 2008 -- Yucca news release
It's official: The Energy Department announced today that it will cost $96.2 billion to build the nation's nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, operate it for the next 150 years and shut it down.
In a conference call today, the department's Yucca Mountain project director said the new estimate assumes more waste will eventually be stored at the mountain than now allowed. Department projections are counting on Congress to one day lift the 70,000 metric ton limit to 122,000 metric tons at the mountain 90 miles north of Las Vegas.
The new price tag is higher than the $57.5 billion estimated in 2001 due to inflation and the increased quantity and design changes, which account for 10 percent of the difference, said director Edward Sproat. He had suggested the new price tag weeks ago in advance of today's announcement.
The department has not estimated what it would cost to simply keep waste on site at power plants, as Nevada lawmakers who oppose Yucca Mountain have argued for years.
Yucca Mountain is at a pivotal crossroads as the two presidential candidates have starkly different attitudes on the repository. Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, supports Yucca Mountain. Presumed Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama has vowed to withdraw the federal government's license application for the dump, if elected.
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Reid's delays are costing utility ratepayer. This is increasing electric power cost.
In Brian Greenspun’s own recent words double-side “Obama is more of a realist, choosing to rely on science to make a decision.” Just this weekend Obama made a tactical change to adopt the drill now approach. Is nuclear storage next on the chopping block?
The YMP License Application was submitted June of 2008. The LA process continues to establish the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site, and is based on the science of the five supporting national labs and the USGS. Is Obama really smarter than the five national labs, the USGS, and the NRC to make a decision to stop the project.
Stopping Yucca is not a political decision but a legal and technical decision as played out by the NRC, the five supporting national labs, and the USGS. Isn’t the USGS help LV prove they can get the water from up north?
Obama has a dilemma with the false promise he is making to Nevada and Senator Reid with regards to Yucca (to garner four electoral votes. NV Rep. Shelly Berkley let the cat out of the bag when she in a seven minute "assurance" phone call was pleased to note that Obama in Berkley's words (LV R-J 6-21-2008) said "He didn't know how he would stop it." No consideration of science was made.
Obama has enough friends and "state" lobbyist in the nuclear industry to know that if the Feds quit on Yucca without changing the NWPA, that the NEI (through the courts) will get their money ($20 billion plus) back and the NEI can complete the job themselves. Obama policy statement has a yet to be detailed Long-term Disposal Solution.
Obama has to answer the question. He cannot be allowed to just say "He didn't know how he would stop it."
Obama’s website says “Obama will also lead federal efforts to look for a safe, long-term disposal solution based on objective, scientific analysis. (Sounds like McCain). In the meantime, Obama will develop requirements to ensure that the waste stored at current reactor sites is contained using the most advanced dry-cask storage technology available.”
With the YMP License Application going in June of 2008, it will be up to the legally set process with the NRC in the lead to settle the science. At this point in the process, the President does not make the decision on whether the science is acceptable. As the licensing goes forward, this allows the NRC safety review process to establish the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site. Opponents, if they permit an adjudication their positions on technical facts of the program, have should have nothing to fear from a quality review process.