(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Donald Trump's presidential victory, combined with the retirement of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, should revive the debate over the long-stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project that has burned through $15 billion over three decades, Pro's Darius Dixon reports. "I'm excited to work with the Trump Administration and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to quickly restore funding to continue the licensing process, as well as pass comprehensive nuclear waste management legislation for his signature," said Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), a leading Yucca backer who's seeking the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
President-elect Trump hasn't yet taken a position on Yucca, but he said last month during a visit to Nevada that he was "going to take a look at it." And that's music to the ears of the project's supporters, who have grown weary of opposition espoused by Hillary Clinton and Reid, who repeatedly pressured his caucus to squeeze Yucca funding out of spending bills. Though support for Yucca is strong, many supporters believe they will need to include the creation of temporary waste storage facilities - like one proposed for a site in Andrews County, Texas - to draw more Democrats off the fence.
Positions on the project do not fall exclusively along party lines. Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller, who is expected to have a tough re-election race in 2018, has vowed to keep fighting the project. Meanwhile, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the No. 4 Democrat in the Senate, told a dinner hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council this summer that the next Congress would take on "meaningful nuclear waste reform, which includes a place for Yucca Mountain," according to an attendee.
