Crapo Cites Need For Opening Yucca Mountain

Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, Co-Chair of the Senate Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, today cited two major reasons to move ahead with federal plans to open a national nuclear depository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The U.S. Department of Energy plans to file an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking to open a storage facility in Nevada as a follow-up to President Bush and Congress designating the site in July of 2002.

"The spent nuclear materials temporarily stored in Idaho must find a permanent home and that home is planned at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada," Crapo said. "The nation must also move ahead aggressively with plans to develop alternative energy sources. One of those sources must be nuclear power and there must be a national repository to permanently house the materials generated by nuclear power production."