Longtime Nevada columnist John L. Smith: “You don’t really want to screw Nevada, do you Sam?”

MAGA extremist Sam Brown is facing fierce backlash over his support for storing the nation’s nuclear waste in Nevada. Critics and media outlets are observing that this news “could roil Nevada U.S. Senate race,” calling Brown’s stance “not very aware,” “reckless,” and “politically damaging.”

Read more about how Brown’s unpopular support for Yucca Mountain would put the health, safety, and economic security of Nevadans at risk and is putting the NRSC’s handpicked candidate on defense:

The Nevada Independent [OPINION]: Radioactive fallout: Sam Brown shows ignorance on Yucca Mountain fight 

John L. Smith 

May 5, 2024

• Although Brown recently told the Los Angeles Times that he favored economic development that can be done safely, his uncorrected ignorance on Yucca Mountain will haunt his latest run for office against incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen. 
• What’s the half-life of such ill-informed remarks? Even with much of the public not yet focused on the campaign, and the Yucca Mountain issue a well-worn political tune, this promises to leave a mark. National political observers are already predicting his stance on the issue could do real damage in a race that’s expected to be close. 
• Brown’s stance on Yucca Mountain doesn’t just cause politically damaging sound bites. It also casts serious doubt about his qualifications for the office he’s seeking. Polls in recent years have placed opposition to Yucca Mountain as high as 75 percent. It’s not only ignorant to support the deal that proposed to stick Nevada with the nation’s nuclear waste, it’s also terribly dumb politics.
• You don’t really want to screw Nevada, do you Sam?

The Hill: Nuclear waste at center of testy Nevada Senate race  

Nick Robertson and Zack Budryk

May 5, 2024

• Nevada lawmakers from both parties have strongly resisted a federal plan to turn the isolated southwest Nevada mountain — about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas — into a nuclear waste storage facility since the idea was first proposed in the 1980s.
• The issue rose in Congress again last month, when House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) brought up an effort to advance the Yucca Mountain project after years without work.
• Taylor Patterson, executive director at Native Voters Alliance Nevada, described Yucca Mountain as an issue where Western Shoshone tribes in particular have been vocal for years.
• “It’s crazy that we still have to re-address this after years and years and years,” she told The Hill.
• Nuclear energy experts have been skeptical about the idea of a deal on Yucca Mountain as well.

KTVN: Yucca Mountain Gets Injected Into Nevada U.S. Senate Race 

Josh Meny

May 2, 2024

• “Ultimately, what we believe in the state, from both the Democratic and the Republican argument, is that the state opinion matters. It should go to a state that wants it. So, the conversation in Washington should be what the state wants it, not that we’re going to put it here. Apparently, he’s not very aware of the Yucca Mountain issue in Nevada and how emotive it is for voters and for electeds. Unfortunately, he’s not in sync: short-term profit for long-term risk is not where Nevadans are on this,” said Truckee Meadows Community College Political Science Professor Fred Lokken. 
• It is important to note that Yucca Mountain remains the official plan of the federal government to handle over 85,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from various locations across the United States. An increasing number of Republican and Democrat lawmakers in Congress are urging the project to be reconsidered. 

Politico Playbook: What Harry Reid’s Ghost is Reading

Rachel Bade, Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza

May 1, 2024

• “Nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain could roil Nevada U.S. Senate race,” by the L.A. Times’ Seema Mehta: “Yucca Mountain is a third rail in Nevada politics … which makes comments by Nevada GOP Senate candidate SAM BROWN about Yucca Mountain so remarkable.

Las Vegas Sun [EDITORIAL]: Nevada can’t abide a senator who wants state to be nuclear waste dump 

May 1, 2024

• This cannot be allowed to happen. While a long-term storage solution for America’s nuclear waste is needed, it cannot be Yucca Mountain. The site is too dangerous and even Southern Nevada’s love of gambling cannot allow such a reckless bet to be placed on the lives of millions of Americans.
• More than 10 million Americans live within a half-mile of the various routes, meaning they would be exposed to detectable levels of radiation just by being in their home.
• Yucca Mountain must be taken off the table once and for all.

KTVN: Two Cents: Yucca Mountain

May 6, 2024

• Lynn, Sparks: What is this with Yucca Mountain? I thought that’s been settled like about 15 times in the past. It keeps coming up. What’s going on with it now and why is it coming up in the campaigns for this year? 
• Jim, Carson City: I’m calling in about Sam Brown. He needs to pack up and go back to Texas with his Texas ideas and take Yucca Mountain with him.