OUTLOOK FOR YUCCA MOUNTAIN GETTING BLEAKER BY THE DAY

摘要

The future of the Department of Energy's long-troubled Yucca Mountain geological waste repository is coming increasingly into question, with the project taking a number of hits in recent weeks that may derail it once and for all. Publicly, most of attention has turned toward the Fiscal Year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, which longtime opponent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said will contain $288 million for the project-one of the lowest Yucca funding levels in recent memory. On a practical level, that funding level would result in more than 500 layoffs on the Yucca Mountain project, crippling work there and perhaps leading DOE to cancel its newly awarded Yucca Mountain management contract in favor of simply putting operations into standby mode.