What ought to be done here is that all federal property in Nevada should be carved off from Nevada (the state). Just make it a territory and hire some federal officer to preside over the territory. It’s very unlikely that any of the federal property will ever be released to the state or to private ownership. Once you accomplish this...I think the state would shrink down to around 15-percent of the mass of Nevada today.
There are 180 nuclear waste sites scattered all over the US. We need one for security purposes. Heller is just covering his butt with the Nevada voters. Can’t blame him.
Uranium waste fuel rods need not be wasted, nor stored until infinity. The fissile material still remaining in these rods may be, MUST BE, used to initiate fission in Thorium-fueled Molten Salt atomic reactors, which should be getting built RIGHT NOW as an answer as to how to produce more “clean” electrical energy.
We have the technology, the need, and the industrial base to undertake this transformation of our energy sources in this country, and elsewhere in the world. And eventually, totally eliminate the Yucca Mountain storage site and all other storage sites around the world.