Letter to President Donald J. Trump - Exclude Funding for Yucca Mountain in Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Proposal

Letter

Dear President Trump:

In light of your recent remarks indicating a change in this Administration's policy on Yucca Mountain, we write to respectfully request that you zero out funding for this dangerous project in your upcoming Fiscal Year 2020 budget request. Greenlighting Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository will endanger the health, safety, and security of Nevadans and threaten our vibrant tourism industry, so it is critical that your actions on this issue match your rhetoric.

In Congress, we have opposed the reckless proposal to operate a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Storing waste at Yucca Mountain poses an existential threat to Nevada and to its neighboring states. Yucca Mountain is located less than a hundred miles northwest of Las Vegas, a city that houses two million people and attracts over forty million visitors each year. Restarting and completing the Yucca Mountain site would require shipping high-level radioactive nuclear waste across our neighboring states and through the Las Vegas valley by truck and train, crossing through and traveling near business districts, neighborhoods, and schools. This endeavor would require the construction of almost three-hundred miles of new railroad tracks to transport radioactive waste across the country, putting at risk more than one-hundred twenty-three million individuals nationwide living near the proposed routes.

The Yucca Mountain project is also a threat to our collective national security and the readiness of our Air Force. The site is adjacent to the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), the largest air and ground military training space in the contiguous United States, known worldwide as the "Crown Jewel of the Air Force." According to Air Force Secretary Wilson, there is no nuclear waste transportation route across the NTTR that would not impact critical testing and training. Yucca Mountain and its proposed waste transportation routes are also located near numerous other critical national security assets, including Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases, the Nevada National Security Site, and Hawthorne Army Depot. The Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that you signed into law directs the Secretaries of Defense and Energy to study the impact the Yucca Mountain project would have on operations at these sites, which are critical to U.S. national security.

Most importantly, Nevadans have not consented to allowing our state to become the nation's nuclear dumping ground. In its 2012 final report, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future recommended that any plan to address nuclear waste storage must be based on scientific analysis, as well as consensus from affected parties. Yucca Mountain does not have that kind of consensus. The majority of Nevadans agree that storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain is not a viable or sustainable solution. Therefore, it is encouraging to hear you say that, with regard to waste storage, the federal government "should do things where people want them to happen" and that you "agree with the people of Nevada." However, these statements are merely empty promises if you continue to include funding for Yucca Mountain in your annual budget request to Congress.

Your most recent President's Budget included requests of $30 million for defense nuclear waste storage and $90 million for civilian nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain. We opposed these requests and were able to prevent them from inclusion in the Fiscal Year 2019 Energy & Water minibus appropriations bill that you signed into law. However, if you are indeed "looking at it seriously" with respect to honoring the will of Nevadans, your Fiscal Year 2020 budget request must not include any funding for Yucca Mountain. Doing otherwise would be an abrogation of your duty to protect the people of the United States, including three million Nevadans.

We look forward to your response and future action and hope that you keep your word to the people of Nevada. Our health, safety, and security depend on your follow-through.

Sincerely,

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