Blue Ribbon Committee Needed

In 1982 Congress mandated that Nuclear Waste be stored deep underground in a Centralized Storage Facility. Congress thought this was a wise thing to do, so they did it. Congress always does wise things.

In 1987 Yucca Mountain in Nevada was chosen as the Centralized Storage Facility for all this yucky stuff.

In 1993, the Department of Energy (DOE) began grading work on first phase of the Centralized Storage Facility and also set waste acceptance to begin in 2010.

While Yucca Mountain was being built (employing a whole bunch of Nevadans) utilities all over the Fruited Plain, while waiting for the storage site to be selected and construction to be completed, have been storing all this nuclear waste inside cooling pools at nuclear reactor sites and paying the government to permanently dispose of the waste because a Nuclear Waste Fund was set up in 1982 to pay for the Centralized Storage Facility. The Centralized Storage Facility is being funded by fees collected on the generation of electricity from nuclear power plants all over the U.S.

But billions of dollars and decades later, the U.S. is back to square one.

Nevada wasn't happy hosting the nation's nuclear waste dump. After all those Nevadans had received all those construction paychecks all those years, now they are not happy. The current administration formally pulled the plug on Yucca Mountain and its Centralized Storage Facility in 2010.

Wow! Is it not interesting that, after all those Nevadans received all those pay checks, 2010 is the year the plug is pulled? How good is your short term memory? If you go back up earlier in this posting you will find these words in bold, “waste acceptance to begin in 2010”.

Below is a view inside Yucca Mountain. The view is looking down the main tunnel shaft (“main” means there are more than this one shaft) which descends over 5 miles into Yucca Mountain. Does this prior sentence give you some sense as to how big this project was? All that money spent over all those years of construction and we tax payers now own a gigantic hole in the ground that will never to be used.

The hole has swallowed just under 100 Billion Dollars. In case you forgot what the Smartfella has tried to teach you in the past, that’s just under 100 Thousand Million Dollars.
                         
Since we have dumped just under 100 Thousand Million Dollars into that hole in the ground, we ought to use the hole for something. The Smartfella recommends we use it to store the contents of our Federal Graft and Corruption Monies Yet To Be Handed Out Fund (the hole might not be big enough).

You are thinking I made up the existence of such a fund but you are not sure I made it up, are you?

As all of my dear readers always expect of me, I don’t just cry wolf. I actually propose remedies for the Governmental Foolishness I point out to you.

The reason why this project was canceled after spending just under 100 Thousand Million Dollars is that Nevada has a very powerful Senator representing it in Congress.

The crux of the problem is this Senator is too powerful. Congress ought to appoint a Blue Ribbon Committee to determine who the least powerful Senator in the Senate at this time. Once that determination is made they can slam our Nuclear Waste Plans down these weakly represented constituent’s collective throats.

However, my plan will never work. Do you see the reason why?...
Twenty five years from now (after we have spent a heck of a lot more than 100 thousand million dollars) that least powerful Senator will be a very powerful Senator and, after his constituents have sucked in twenty five years of pay checks, the project will be canceled by President Chelsea Clinton.

Would I kid u?
Smartfella