Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Letter: Nevadans say no to nuclear waste

Brian Greenspun hit the nail on the head in his July 14 column “Why Yucca Mountain rattles us should be no surprise.”

Countless hours have been spent debating a shortsighted attempt to restart the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and, to put it simply and succinctly, Nevadans have said no, time and again, to becoming the nation’s nuclear waste dump.

The Trump administration and the president’s many enablers may not understand the meaning of the word no, but hopefully they hear this loud and clear: The families of Las Vegas do not want to store nuclear waste less than 100 miles from their homes.

The families of Nevada have been lied to repeatedly by people like Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose department recently shipped nuclear waste into the state. This sort of ineptitude is inexcusable at any level of the federal government, but especially so when hazardous nuclear waste is being mishandled.

I urge Nevadans to thank Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, as well as Gov. Steve Sisolak, for opposing the shipments and attempts to reopen Yucca Mountain. We should also support Rep. Steven Horsford’s call for Perry’s resignation.