Yucca Mountain - a breathtaking view

I'm 54 years old. If I were paid a tenth of a cent for every breath I've taken so far, that would come to about $430-thousand. I mention that because electricity customers have been paying an extra tenth-of-a-cent for each kilowatt-hour produced by nuclear power since 1983. The extra money goes into a federal government account called the Nuclear Waste Fund, which is dedicated to the task of disposing of the spent fuel. There's been a lot of electricity produced by these hundered-and-some plants over the years. The tenth-of-a-cent charges have totalled to some $30-billion. Almost half has been spent already, on Yucca Mountain, without a single spent fuel bundle yet put in the big hole we've dug. And our federal government leaders don't seem inclined to ever let Yucca Mountain be used for that purpose. I know with all the trillions of dollars being printed to bailout, er rescue, er stimulate, a triflingly few billions wasted doesn't seem so breathtaking any more. More's the pity.