Harry Reid
Gone but not forgotten
IN THE SPIRIT of “never say anything bad about the dead,” we’re tempted to tip-toe quietly by this news. But Harry Reid’s death this week should—although it’s unlikely—put Yucca Mountain back in the news next week.
Harry Reid, the former majority leader in the United States Senate, represented Nevada. And the Democratic Party. Oh, he represented the Democratic Party well. Just Google “Harry Reid Mitt Romney taxes” and see how well he played the political game, no matter how many “Pinocchios” or “Pants on Fire” ratings the media gave him.
But the most lasting thing the man did, unfortunately, was keep Yucca Mountain in Nevada closed to nuclear waste. It is a continued detriment to the country. No matter what pols will say about him so soon after his death. (“A canny and tough negotiator who was never afraid to make an unpopular decision if it meant getting something done that was right for the country.”— Bill Clinton)
What would have been right for the country would have been a Yucca Mountain repository.
No matter how The Las Vegas Sun described it this week, Yucca Mountain was never meant to be a “dumping ground” for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. Talk about government waste: The feds have already spent $15 billion to prepare the Yucca Mountain repository.
And you know that only came after years of research, to make sure the nuclear waste couldn’t seep into ground water or somehow be released another way. After all the experts chimed in, they figured the best place to put all this waste would be under a big rock, blocked off and guarded, where earthquakes, hurricanes and terrorists couldn’t get at it. Until the world figured out a way to use, or dispose of, this waste.
But because the big rock was in Nevada, and because Harry Reid was majority leader, the plan spent billions of tax dollars but went nowhere. His friends call it Harry Reid’s legacy.
For now, all that nuclear waste is piling up at nuclear plants scattered all around the nation. Every one of them is a target in the first place. But having spent fuel stacking up in the attic makes those plants doubly dangerous in case of an attack or accident.
They say Yucca Mountain is one of the most studied pieces of geology in the world. But politics has kept it from being used. And kept dozens of communities across the country in danger.
His friends call it Harry Reid’s legacy? So have many of his opponents.