Last week, Nevadans found out that MAGA extremist Sam Brown thinks that restarting Yucca Mountain and turning Nevada into the nation’s nuclear waste dumping ground is an “incredible opportunity.” It’s an extreme, out-of-touch position that “could roil Nevada U.S. Senate race,” as outlets and critics across the state call Brown’s stance “not very aware,” “reckless,” and “politically damaging.”
Over three days, the Nevada State Democratic Party is highlighting all the ways Sam Brown is putting himself at odds with Nevada’s environmental, business and elected leaders by strongly supporting the plan to restart Yucca Mountain.
Brown’s extreme support for reviving Yucca Mountain puts him directly at odds with the business community and economic leaders from across Nevada.
- Prominent business organizations have opposed the plan to revive Yucca Mountain, which would result in radioactive material being transported less than a half mile from thousands of hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip.
- Organizations against Yucca Mountain include:
- Major Nevada Gaming, Tourism and Business leaders like MGM Resorts, Caesars, Wynn and others signed a letter urging Congress to end plans to try and license/open the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.
- The Las Vegas Convention And Visitors Authority (LVCVA) unanimously opposed the revival of federal funding for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.
- One of the founding principles of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance (LVGEA) is to oppose plans to use Yucca Mountain as a “high-level radioactive waste location.”
- The American Gaming Association (AGA) has consistently opposed plans to restart Yucca Mountain.
- The Nevada Resort Association (NRA) issued a statement celebrating the Nevada’s Congressional Delegation for their work to defeat an amendment that would have restarted efforts to fund Yucca Mountain.
- The Vegas Chamber issued a letter citing numerous concerns over the project, including that “the potential terrorist threats, environmental impacts, and transportation challenges were too great of a risk on our region’s economy.”
- While standing in front of the Las Vegas Strip and I-15 during a press conference last week, Assemblyman Howard Watts emphasized the hundreds of Las Vegas businesses are in direct peril if nuclear waste were to be transported to Yucca:
- “All nuclear waste would be transported right through here…Any trucks transporting nuclear waste will be going down this highway right past the heart of our community. The trains would go right behind where we’re gathered today along this rail line.”
- The Executive Director of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects, Robert Halstead, has previously expressed concern about the potential for terrorist attacks on transported nuclear waste, arguing that if “nuclear waste were spilled in a deadly terrorist attack, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up.”
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