State Senator Al Melvin, a Republican who represents the area north of Tucson, thinks Arizonans will approve what the people of Nevada rejected at Yucca Mountain, even though they were promised bucketloads of cash: a dumping ground for the nation's nuclear waste.
And who will help educate citizens about the need for and safety of his cockamamy scheme? Who better than teachers! Melvin's atom-fried noggin' thinks educators will embrace his plan because the millions made from storing nuclear garbage will be used to prop up the state's struggling education system. You know, the very same schools that Melvin and his fellow tea party nitwits in the Arizona legislature cut $450 million just last year.
Atomic Al Melvin has worked on his pitch to sell a nuclear waste dump to Arizonans. He's always claimed it's all about funding education. Nukes for schools. But now he's got a name for it: The Arizona Energy-Education Fund....
No "Atomic" in the name. No "Nuclear." Just "Energy." Don't want to scare anyone now, do we? Bring a nuclear waste dump to Arizona, Melvin says, and it will mean $100 million a year for public schools. Isn't that great? Starve public schools, then throw them a nuclear bone and hope they bite on it. Blog for Arizona
Last year Melvin sponsored SB 1548, his "Nuclear Recycling Public School Fund." He claimed it would reduce the need for the state to set aside education dollars in the general fund. Natch -- can't be funding schools! The bill passed out of the Senate but stalled in the House, so he's back this year minus "Nuclear" in the title.
Melvin, a stooge of recalled Senate President Russell Pearce, has been at the nuclear thing a long time. He never saw a uranium mine he didn't like, whether it's near the Grand Canyon or elsewhere, or a federal regulation he did. Last year Senator Melvin sponsored SB 1545, his attempt to remove Arizona's nuclear industry from federal oversight, but it never got out of committee. He says the red tape makes building nuclear plants too time-consuming and costly. Build fast and cheap. David Safier calls his model the
"WalMart/McDonalds approach to nuclear energy, since he envisions large and small power plants proliferating across the state like big box discount stores and fast food franchises." Blog for Arizona
What could possibly go wrong? In addition to accidents, don't forget that nuclear power is a water-intensive enterprise. Melvin's plan doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a state that measures its annual rainfall in single digits. Hunkered down about 50 miles west of Phoenix, Palo Verde is the only nuclear plant in the nation that does not sit near a body of water; it's treated each year with 20 billion gallons of wastewater. Melvin's got an answer to the water shortage issue, though: he'll build a giant desalting plant in Mexico to capture more Colorado River water -- like the one near Yuma that's been more or less mothballed for twenty years.
A July 2011 Blue Ribbon report, undertaken in the wake of the Obama administration's 2009 decision to halt plans at Yucca Mountain, recommends a "consent-based approach" to locating future waste management facilities. Senator Melvin has a lot of "consent" work to do, if history is any indicator. When nuclear waste plants were proposed here in the past -- near Maricopa, Casa Grande, and Yuma -- residents went bonkers.
So Atomic Al is turning to educators, the people he and other GOP goons have pissed all over, to help him "educate" Arizonans about this opportunity:
"We want to move on several fronts. We want to continue our outreach to the education community and try to get them to join us as partners in our coalition," said Melvin, R-Tucson. "They’re the beneficiary of the fund, but they’re also going to help us educate the voters." Blog for Arizona
Don't hold your breath, Al.