Nevadans have opposed Yucca Mountain for decades
This undated image shows the entrance to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository located in Nye County, Nev., about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas./ AFP/Getty Images
By MarketWatch
President Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to reverse his position on a proposal to create a national nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada after his administration tried for several years to revive the mothballed project.
“Nevada, I hear you on Yucca Mountain and my Administration will RESPECT you!” Trump said in a tweet. “Congress and previous Administrations have long failed to find lasting solutions – my Administration is committed to exploring innovative approaches – I’m confident we can get it done!”
Adam Laxalt, Trump’s Republican re-election campaign chief in Nevada, said he believed the president was expressing support for opponents of the project, which was first proposed in the 1980s to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation’s most highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel in tunnels under an ancient volcanic ridge northwest of Las Vegas.
Laxalt, a former state attorney general, fought federal efforts to resume work at the site using a wide range of objections revolving around safety, security and science.
Yucca Mountain was among topics he said he discussed with the president last weekend at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Laxalt on Thursday tweeted thanks to Trump, saying, “We are so fortunate that you listened to us.”
