Saturday, June 29, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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A former Department of Energy official and the president of the Nuclear Energy Institute are calling for the opening of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and calling Nevada's elected officials obfuscating politicians. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are doing their job.
I served two terms on the Community Advisory Board for the Nevada Test Site, and have taken two professionally escorted tours inside Yucca Mountain. The huge boring machine is impressive, as are the myriad side tunnels designed to hold tons of highly radioactive waste. But that is eyewash.
As a kid growing up outside of Salt Lake City, I remember not being able to drink locally sourced milk after above-ground nuclear tests in Nevada due to high levels of radioactive strontium-90 falling on grasses ingested by the cows. Scientists found radioactive strontium in deciduous teeth of children and rates of childhood leukemia and other cancers increased. So why not pile on tons more of highly radioactive waste?
Clark County has grown from a population of 1.4 million in 2000 to 2.2 million in 2018. Is it not safer to err on the side of prudence, rather than put 2 million residents, hundreds of thousands of children and 42 million visitors at risk?
We should applaud and support the leadership of our congressional delegation and the line in the sand drawn by Gov. Steve Sisolak. It is not politics, it is sound leadership.
