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Did the federal government offer Nevada billions of dollars to host the nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain?

By Todd Butterworth
NO

There is no evidence that the federal government offered Nevada billions of dollars to host the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

The project, which was never completed, did for a time entail payments to Nye County, which generated $11.25 million in 2007 for the property value of the project and received up to $2.7 million annually in oversight money.

The project was scrapped in 2010, with sunk costs at the time totalling an estimated $38 billion. Lawmakers have proposed offering incentives including new infrastructure, schools, water rights and money to convince Nevada to let the project resume.

If completed, repository costs would total an estimated $97 billion and the site could store 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel.

A 2017 poll showed 33% of likely voters in Nevada favored storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain and 58% opposed.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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