Last week Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) led a bipartisan delegation to the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage site in the Nevada desert. Reps. Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Bob Latta (R-OH), Cresent Hardy (R-NV), Mark Amodei (R-NV), and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) joined the tour to examine the repository, which was shuttered by the Obama administration in 2010. Rep. Shimkus is hoping to work with the state of Nevada and other parties to revive the project, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "It’s 30 years, $15 billion of an investment by the nation. Again, with the facts that the NRC has said, once fully used it will be safe for a million years. It’s an investment that we need to keep in mind as we move forward."

April 9, 2015

6 congressmen go underground, tour Yucca Mountain

MERCURY — The whir of ventilation fans and glow of lights inside the south entrance of the tunnel that loops through Yucca Mountain signaled new life for the shuttered nuclear waste study site for a few hours Thursday while six congressmen toured it.

"It’s 30 years, $15 billion of an investment by the nation. Again, with the facts that the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has said, once fully used it will be safe for a million years. It’s an investment that we need to keep in mind as we move forward," Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., said after a 1-hour, 15-minute ride through the 5-mile tunnel on all-terrain vehicles.

Shimkus, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce environment and economy subcommittee, arranged for himself and five colleagues to tour the Yucca Mountain tunnel, including Nevada Republican Reps. Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei.

Hardy, whose district includes the Yucca Mountain site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, said that the tour was educational and seeing the exploratory tunnel firsthand gave him a better understanding of the process for siting a nuclear waste repository though the Obama administration has abandoned Yucca Mountain.

"I learned that there’s a tunnel in the ground. I learned that there’s science behind some of this stuff," Hardy said. "I’m glad I came. That gives me a little better understanding how this is set up and what the plans are if it is approved. I think that’s important."

Amodei said the prospect of restarting the Yucca Mountain Project "is something to think about," even if the result turns out to be a "nuclear landfill." With that could come benefits for the state in other areas besides securing more energy and water. …

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April 10, 2015

House members see repository site -- and maybe a way forward

YUCCA MOUNTAIN, Nev. -- Standing before the yawning, black mouth of the entrance to the Yucca Mountain repository site, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) made an aggressive pitch yesterday for storing the nation's most highly radioactive nuclear waste deep in the Silver State's desert.

"I understand the concerns and the frustrations that many members in Nevada have and some of the public, but I think that debate is turning a little bit in the state," said Shimkus, a hard hat tucked under his arm. "I want them to be assured they'd have a large role in the decisions on siting, infrastructure, rail spurs, roads. We want them to come talk to us."

Shimkus, chairman of a key House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, had just emerged from touring the 5-mile tunnel through the mountain on all-terrain vehicles with five of his House colleagues, staff from the Energy Department and congressional aides, including a staffer for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. …

 

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April 10, 2015

Lawmakers tour Yucca nuclear waste site

Six House lawmakers on Thursday took a tour of Nevada's Yucca Mountain site, which has long been planned as a storage place for the nation's nuclear waste.

The lawmakers, lead by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), rode through a 5-mile exploratory tunnel that was built in the 1990s, before President Obama stopped the construction project in 2010 amid local opposition, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Representatives from the Energy Department and journalists accompanied the bipartisan delegation.

Shimkus, who chairs the subcommittee with responsibility over nuclear power, organized the tour to promote efforts to restart the project. He said there’s little reason to oppose it and argues it would save millions for the U.S. government. …

Shimkus took another delegation to the site in 2011. Aside from a Defense Department visit earlier this year, the 2011 trip was the last anyone has taken inside Yucca.

What made this trip different was the bipartisan attendance and the presence of Nevada members of Congress, who have historically opposed the project. …

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