Wake-Up Call: Escape from Yucca Mountain

A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon we're talking real money. To be somewhat precise, $13.5 billion, which is what the federal government has spent in the more than two decades that it's proposed storing nuclear waste in an area known as Yucca Mountain, a volcanic ridge fewer...

By Patricia Calhoun

March 6, 2009

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A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon we're talking real money.

To be somewhat precise, $13.5 billion, which is what the federal government has spent in the more than two decades that it's proposed storing nuclear waste in an area known as Yucca Mountain, a volcanic ridge fewer than a hundred miles from Las Vegas. And for just as long, activists have fought the plan.

But yesterday, new Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that the site is no longer an option. Instead, the feds will store the 58,000 tons of waste at power plants while they explore other options -- and any funding for further Yucca Mountain projects has been removed from the budget.

That's good news for environmentalists, good news for new Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (who won't have to deal with this issue, at least) -- and stunning news for anyone with a memory for numbers. Billions of them.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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