Blue Ribbon Commission’s Road Not Yet Traveled

As the Blue Ribbon Commission held its first meeting in Washington last week, it was hard to discern what road not yet traveled would yield to any better result than the utter failure of the Federal Government’s efforts over the last 50 years to successfully site a geologic repository. As outlined by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Federal Government has tried practically every conceivable alternate but to no avail.

One would have to question then after 30 years and over $10 billion invested in the Yucca Mountain project why the U.S. government would abandon the site without knowing if NRC would find it suitable, much less to “withdraw with prejudice” its license application.

With the DOE’s move to terminate Yucca Mountain now being contested in the courts and in the House of Representatives, the specter of Yucca Mountain’s imminent demise may not be so certain.