February 28, 2019

Today Representative Dina Titus of Nevada’s First Congressional District joined Representative Steven Horsford of Nevada’s Fourth Congressional District and Representative Susie Lee of Nevada’s Third Congressional District in sending a letter to President Trump, urging him not to include additional funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in the Trump Administration’s budget for Fiscal Year 2020. The letter reminds President Trump that last fall he came to Nevada and said he “would be very inclined to be against” the Yucca Mountain project. 

“Unless and until we reform the process for the siting of nuclear waste repositories, any funding put towards the Yucca Mountain licensing process is a waste of time and resources,” wrote Reps. Titus, Horsford, and Lee. “We thank you for your attention and urge you not to include any additional funding for the licensing and construction of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.”

The full text of the letter is below. 

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Dear President Trump,

As you finalize your budget for Fiscal Year 2020, we are writing to urge you not to include any additional funding for the licensing process for the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. Just last Fall, when you came to Nevada, you were asked about Yucca Mountain and said at the time, “I think you should do things where people want them to happen, so I would be very inclined to be against it.” Recent polling by multiple outlets continues to show that the majority of Nevadans, including the majority of Republican and Democratic voters, oppose the proposed nuclear waste dump.

Furthermore, our state has no nuclear power generation. So instead of doubling down on the failed nuclear waste policies of the last three decades and wasting billions more on this project, we believe we must refocus our efforts on consent-based siting for nuclear waste repositories. Consent-based siting has been a success in many developed nuclear nations. 

The Yucca Mountain project is opposed by the bipartisan Nevada Congressional Delegation as well as our Governor, the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Nevada Resorts Association, and numerous conservation and community groups from across the State. 

Again, including funding for this project would be throwing good money after bad. Unless and until we reform the process for the siting of nuclear waste repositories, any funding put towards the Yucca Mountain licensing process is a waste of time and resources. We thank you for your attention and urge you not to include any additional funding for the licensing and construction of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. 

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