Inspector General report condemns NRC chief over his attempts to shut Yucca Mountain
An inspector general report this week slammed the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under the Obama administration over his attempts to shut the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility.
In the two years that Gregory Jaczko has led the nation’s independent nuclear agency, his actions to delay, hide and kill work on a disputed dump for high-level radioactive waste have been called “bizarre,” `’unorthodox” and “illegal.” These harsh critiques haven’t come just from politicians who have strong views in favor of the Yucca Mountain waste site in Nevada. They’ve come from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s own scientists and a former agency chairman.
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An inspector general report this week slammed the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under the Obama administration over his attempts to shut the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility.
In the two years that Gregory Jaczko has led the nation’s independent nuclear agency, his actions to delay, hide and kill work on a disputed dump for high-level radioactive waste have been called “bizarre,” `’unorthodox” and “illegal.” These harsh critiques haven’t come just from politicians who have strong views in favor of the Yucca Mountain waste site in Nevada. They’ve come from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s own scientists and a former agency chairman.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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Bob, Thanks for pointing this out. If the disaster in Japan taught us one thing it’s that we need a safe, permanent storage facility for our radioactive waste–Yucca Mountain. And we need it now, not a decade or two from now.
There is no other solution on the horizon. Should better ideas come about in 50 or 500 years, at least the materials will have been kept safe until then. In the meantime, to leave our spent fuel rods in “temporary” storage pools similar to those in Japan and in various other haphazard storage locations for other radioactive waste leaves us vulnerable to accidents and terrorism.
Knowing what we now know post-Japanese earthquake, it really is knowing–even criminal–negligence to not open Yucca Mountain as soon as possible.