Who has the best Yucca Mountain policies?

One of the touchiest issues in Nevada is Yucca Mountain.

With Yucca Mountain only 90 miles outside Las Vegas, citizens of the great Silver State are continually worried about the possible outcome of this particular matter. And in my opinion, their worries are justified. Nevadans’ worries show concern for their state and their loved ones. No one ever wants to see the ill effects of nuclear waste that has leaked or spilled.

However, there has to be a solution for this issue. Currently, there are boric acid pools or dry-cask storage containers located close to nuclear power plants holding nuclear waste. These are for temporary storage and can’t be permanent solutions. Having waste stored in such a fashion is unsafe. By attempting to make temporary settings permanent, we are setting ourselves up for disaster.

There are solutions to the problem, if only we are willing to look. Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, presidential hopefuls, have very different views on the subject.

Sen. McCain has talked of many ideas on the subject, one being an international site to hold nuclear waste, one that could hold waste for many countries. This would reduce the need for Yucca Mountain, if not make it an obsolete idea. Another idea brought forth by Sen. McCain would be to recycle the nuclear waste—as France does—until there is little left, a minimal amount at most.

With the ability to recycle nuclear waste, the problems of Yucca Mountain would be lessened, even if the waste were stored there. Recycling this waste would maximize the amount of energy produced in this country and would reduce the total amount of waste to be stored. This is a fairly efficient idea as to how to ensure Nevadans’ safety, while helping lessen the energy crisis in a long-term manner.

Then there are Sen. Obama’s views on Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste. In reality, he doesn’t have a solid opinion on them. He can’t have a solid solution because nuclear power operators have cushioned his pockets. So Sen. Obama seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He doesn’t want nuclear waste in his home state of Illinois, so where better to put it than Nevada? Without solid answers coming from Sen. Obama, it is safe to assume that he wants the waste to be dumped in Nevada. This is a problem.

Sen. Obama has said that he does not want to store waste in Nevada at Yucca Mountain. There are minor problems with the legitimacy of this statement. One being that he has no alternative to the problem; he has come up with no solution to change the outcome of this issue. The second part of this problem is very simple: He voted in favor of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. If he is so against putting waste into Yucca Mountain, then why did he vote in favor of it? By doing this, one would think he is for storing nuclear waste in Nevada as opposed to his own state, which produces 48 percent of the nation’s nuclear waste.

With such flip-flopping ideas, we must question presidential candidate Obama’s motives. Is he for the people that fill his pockets or is he for the people who will elect him into office? How can we be sure when his voting record has clashed with what he has said?

If Sen. Obama doesn’t have your best interests at heart, how can you vote for him when Election Day comes along?