Reno Hayek Symposium

Kudos to John Dunn, Mike Nusbaum and Gene Humphrey for the excellent presentation on Yucca Mountain at our dinner February 16th. They along with Bill McCraley and Randy York have formed a non-profit to promote and manage their proposed “Yucca Energy Park” which would administer a Nevada Permanent Fund and manage the myriad of services and related businesses consequent on the development of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear fuel repository. Those would include nuclear spent fuel rod reprocessing, nuclear research, a nuclear power plant and related activities including R&D for alternative energy technologies. In other words their proposal is to benefit Nevada and its people by going beyond the “waste dump” pejorative of the nuclear repository, and fully developing the economic potential of all commercial aspects of nuclear energy: power generation, reprocessing, and R & D. In addition the Park concept also accommodates an R&D focus on potential/emerging alternative energy technologies.

The potential revenue to the state and its people is measurable in the Billions of Dollars, since every nuclear power rate payer now pays an assessment that goes into a fund specifically for Yucca which has accumulated over $30 Billion to date and continues by law to provide significant monies annually. The proposal is that half of the money received would go to operating expenses and the state, the other half would go directly to the rate payers in the state. The analogy here is the Alaskan Permanent Fund which derives revenue from the pipeline. In Alaska not only does the state benefit but the people directly benefit with annual dividend payments.

But just as important as the money are the jobs the project would produce. Many of the permanent jobs are high skill high pay jobs, some are maintenance and administration. The construction jobs would extend over a couple of decades. And the research positions would create a whole new area of opportunity for the university as well as private firms. So this is potentially a major diversification for the economy of the state. In short, the Yucca Energy Park is a SIGNIFICANT, HIGH QUALITY JOBS MACHINE for Nevada!

The timing of their efforts is particularly appropriate since Obama has finally decided to promote nuclear power as an eco-friendly step toward reducing reliance on foreign oil.

It is truly a pity that we have short sighted politicians like Harry Reid in Nevada–perhaps blind is a more appropriate descriptive characteristic! Harry is trying to kill what the people need most jobs and diversification of the state’s economy.

There are also positive indications in the press that states like South Carolina are considering legal action for force the federal government to proceed with the Yucca project.

We thank and applaud John, Mike and Gene for the presentation and will keep everyone posted as to the progress. If any reader wants to help with this they can (1) write, call or email the Governor asking him to move Yucca forward, and (2) contact the new non-profit by emailing me at tom@renohayek.com.

Tom Motherway