The authors are giving the Obama administration too much credit. It'll reopen with another administration. Wait and see.

Yep... a giant hole in the ground doesn't go away. It'll be there when someone decides to use it.

So why is it not being used? One would think that some space explaining that would have help make this a better story.

I agree, the article had no explanation of why this is happening, and I'm surprised to hear that Obama's administration gave it a SMALLER budget, I would have expected the opposite.
I was under the impression that if we didn't build Yucca Mtn we wouldn't be able to open new nuclear plants and replace coal and fossil fuels to power our homes. Am I wrong? or are we just taking this green switch more slowly?

Thing is, someone just finally decided that there is no money or political power to be gained from the facility.

Yes, I know, cynical view and all that...

But more often than not, the cynical view turns out to be correct.

They really ought to just blast all the nuclear waste out into space, where it will orbit around another star system for the rest of forever. It's not as if there are any fuzzy green men who will ever complain... and if there are, what better way to finally get their attention?

We just need to be sure not to include one of those disks inviting them to come visit us on that spaceship.

I hate to think the only solution to polluting our planet is to pollute our solar system, or someone else's. Really, it's the same thing, just on a smaller scale.

Yes you do have a good point. My statement was simply "put it off until after I'm dead," which is exactly what they were trying to do at Yucca anyway.

Hmmm... maybe we could find some way to reuse the spent radioactive material to provide a different kind of power? There are eggheads somewhere who get paid to do that kind of thinking...

Great oaks grow from tiny acorns. I don't know what kind of vocation you have, but maybe you should put some thought into that and propose it to someone. Makes more sense than glowing in the dark under a mountain somewhere.

My problem is that, while I *am* a thinker, I am simply one of the masses.

I work in construction, so while my body toils in the sun or snow, my mind is free to roam.

No one cares for the opinion of a me, a person of the lowest rank in society. I will keep my thoughts to myself, officially, but post them in places like this in the hope that one of a higher order will read and understand, and make what changes which he can.

But if not, when the revolution comes, I'll be there contributing from the shadows. Those who ruined our world will be the first up against the wall.