GOP candidates line up against Yucca Mountain

Available: Mountain property. Convenient to nowhere. Accessible via deteriorating roads. Features one mountain containing a 5-mile U-shaped tunnel, going nowhere. Use the railroad tracks in the tunnel at your own risk. On-site buildings do not meet OSHA standards. Must be willing to deal with three government landlords. Property encumbered by lawsuits galore.


That, in essence, is a description of Yucca Mountain, Nevada.


For 30 years, the mountain was the presumed site of the nation's nuclear waste repository. Billions were spent studying and preparing the mountain to receive used fuel from the nation's 103 commercial nuclear power plants.


But after the Obama administration killed plans for the nuclear dump, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, asked the Government Accountability Office to look for other uses for the 230-square-mile site a two-hour drive from Las Vegas.


On Monday, the GAO released a list of 30 alternative uses for Yucca Mountain.


Some of the proposals will hearten advocates of the old nuclear repository plan while infuriating its opponents. Fully 10 suggestions involve nuclear storage, research or generation. Suggestions include making Yucca an "interim" storage site for nuclear waste (as opposed to a permanent storage site), a nuclear waste reprocessing plant, a research reactor site, a nuclear power plant or an air-cooled underground nuclear reactor.


Other suggestions include making Yucca:


-- A commercial energy park for nuclear, solar and wind power generation.


-- A command center for unmanned aerial vehicles.

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-- A training site for first responders.


-- A secure data storage site.


-- A strategic petroleum reserve for the western part of the country.


-- A facility for research on highly infectious diseases.


-- A university to teach mining techniques.


Rights position. What right does 49 states have to punish one state and say we’re going to put our garbage in your state?” Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said to applause. “I think that’s wrong.”


Paul went on to praise nuclear power as a form of energy but said the government should not be involved in any energy subsidies.


Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, outlined a bidding process states could use for leverage.


“If Nevada says, ‘Look, we don’t want it,’ then let other states make bids and say, ‘Look, we’ll take it. Here’s a geological site that we’ve evaluated.


Here’s the compensation we want for taking it,’” he said. “Let the free market work, and on that basis the places that are geologically safe according to science, and where people say the deal’s a good one, we’ll decide where we put this stuff.”


Texas Gov. Rick Perry also chimed in.


“From time to time Mitt and I don’t agree, but on this one he’s hit the nail on the head,” Perry said.


“Allow the states to make the decision” Perry added. “And some state out there will see the economic issue and they will have it in their state.”