Wednesday, August 12, 2026
64.0°F

Trump backs away from push for Nevada nuclear waste dump

Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 6 months AGO
by Associated Press
| February 6, 2020 4:30 PM

LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to reverse his position on a proposal to create a national nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain after his administration has tried for several years to revive the mothballed project.

Trump administration officials and Nevada’s congressional delegation did not immediately have details to share about the president’s new position.

“Nevada, I hear you on Yucca Mountain and my Administration will RESPECT you!” Trump said in a tweet. “Congress and previous Administrations have long failed to find lasting solutions – my Administration is committed to exploring innovative approaches – I’m confident we can get it done!”

The U.S. Department of Energy referred questions about the president’s tweet to the White House. The White House referred questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond.

The Yucca Mountain project — first proposed in the 1980s to hold 77,000 tons (70,000 metric tons) of highly radioactive spent fuel in tunnels bored under an ancient volcanic ridge northwest of Las Vegas — faces broad opposition in Nevada. State officials have argued that seismic activity and nearby Air Force testing would make the site about 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Las Vegas unsuitable to safely store radioactive material from elsewhere in the U.S.

The western state is a political swing state that Trump lost in 2016. His re-election campaign is targeting Nevada in 2020 as one of the battleground states it hopes to capture.

As a presidential candidate, Trump was ambiguous on the issue. Once Trump took office, his administration included requests for money to revive federal licensing for the project in his budget proposals, though Nevada’s congressional delegation successfully fought to keep the funding out of the budget.

Nevada’s senior senator, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, said in a tweet that she looks forward to working with the president on the “critical issue for Nevada” and ensuring Trump’s budget “doesn’t include any funding to restart the failed Yucca Mountain project that a majority of Nevadans reject, regardless of party.”

Ryan King, a spokesman for Cortez Masto, said the senator’s office had not heard from the White House about the president’s new position before Trump’s tweet appeared.

Nevada’s Democratic members of Congress welcomed the news but at least one expressed skepticism about whether Trump would follow through and abandon a push for the project.

“They say if you can’t beat them, join them,” said Rep. Dina Titus. “President Trump tried to shove nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain down our throats for three years. We beat him badly – three times in a row - and he knows it."

“The hard work of the #Nevada Delegation has clearly put pressure on the White House, as evidenced by the President’s newfound commitment to finding alternatives,” Rep. Steven Horsford tweeted.

Nevada's Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak said he welcomed the announcement and looks forward to seeing no funding for the Yucca Mountain project in Trump's budget proposal expected next week.

A message seeking comment from Rep. Mark Amodei, Nevada's sole Republican in Congress, was not immediately returned.

Mary Love, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington-based advocacy group for nuclear power, said she could not speculate on the President’s tweet but said “the political stalemate over used fuel remains an unfortunate reality.”

“The government has failed to meet it’s legal obligation to take possession of used fuel and this abdication is costing U.S. taxpayers,” Love said in a statement. “We remain committed to development of a consolidated storage facility in parallel with the licensing and operation of a permanent geological repository.”

___

Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, Ken Ritter in Las Veg and Scott Sonner in Reno, contributed to this report.

ARTICLES BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 18, 2021 12:03 a.m.

Hong Kong police arrest 4 from university student union

HONG KONG (AP) — Four members of a Hong Kong university student union were arrested Wednesday for allegedly advocating terrorism by paying tribute to a person who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself, police said.

July 25, 2021 12:09 a.m.

For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.

July 24, 2021 12:09 a.m.

For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.