'Allow the states to make the decision,' Perry said of efforts to store nuclear waste. GOPers agree: No to Yucca Mountain

A question about Yucca Mountain left the Republican presidential field scrambling to agree with one another in opposition to the nuclear waste repository at the Las Vegas debate Tuesday night.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came closest to endorsing the now-canceled national nuclear waste repository located about 90 miles from Las Vegas.


“I’m not a scientist. I mean, Yucca Mountain was certainly picked by the scientific community as one of the safest places in the United States,” Gingrich said. “It has always had very deep opposition here in Nevada.”

“But we have to find some method of finding a very geologically stable place, and most geologists agree that Yucca Mountain is that,” he added.

Finding a repository should be left to the free market, the other candidates that spoke on the matter agreed.

“I approach it from a states’ rights position. What right does 49 states have to punish one state and say we’re going to put our garbage in your state?” Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said to applause. “I think that’s wrong.”

Paul went on to praise nuclear power as a form of energy but said the government should not be involved in any energy subsidies.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, outlined a bidding process states could use for leverage.

“If Nevada says, ‘Look, we don’t want it,’ then let other states make bids and say, ‘Look, we’ll take it. Here’s a geological site that we’ve evaluated.

Here’s the compensation we want for taking it,’” he said. “Let the free market work, and on that basis the places that are geologically safe according to science, and where people say the deal’s a good one, we’ll decide where we put this stuff.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also chimed in.

“From time to time Mitt and I don’t agree, but on this one he’s hit the nail on the head,” Perry said.

“Allow the states to make the decision” Perry added. “And some state out there will see the economic issue and they will have it in their state.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 9:57 p.m. on October 18, 2011.