How Story Of Yucca Mountain Highlights A Trump Administration Sometimes Out Of Touch With President’s Promises
Yucca Mountain, in the desert about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was conceived as a permanent storage place for the nation’s radioactive waste, which is currently scattered across dozens of holding sites around the country. Now President Donald Trump is promising Nevadans that he won't make them house the waste in their "backyards." That doesn't always match, though, with what his administration is pushing.
The New York Times:
One Side Of A Nuclear Waste Fight: Trump. The Other: His Administration.
Before the 2018 midterm elections, Senator Dean Heller stood with President Trump in the glittering Trump International Hotel near the Las Vegas Strip, looking out from the top floor, and pointed. “I said, ‘See those railroad tracks?’” Mr. Heller, a Nevada Republican who lost his seat later that year, recalled in an interview. Nuclear waste to be carted to Yucca Mountain for permanent storage would have to travel along the tracks, within a half-mile of the hotel, Mr. Heller said. “I think he calculated pretty quickly what that meant,” Mr. Heller said. “I think it all made sense. There was a moment of reflection, of, ‘Oh, OK.’” (Haberman, 2/23)
In other environmental health news —
The Associated Press:
Cancer-Linked Chemical Found Inside Kansas Aircraft Hangar
More than 50 personnel at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas may have been exposed to dangerous levels of a compound linked to cancer that was found inside an aircraft hangar last year, according to internal memos. Contamination by hexavalent chrominium, the subject of the case featured in the movie "Eric Brockovich”, was documented in multiple base memos from October 2019 to January 2020, McClatchy reported. (2/21)
Georgia Health News:
County Offers Clean Drinking Water To Residents Near Scherer
Over the past month, people in the Georgia town of Juliette have expressed fears that nearby Plant Scherer, America’s largest coal-fired plant, has caused their water to be contaminated with coal ash. Their outcry, along with a flood of statewide media coverage, has led local officials to offer free water to any local residents who need it. (Blau, 2/23)
