Yucca Mountain cost estimate is increased

[Javaman]

The U.S. Department of Energy says it has revised upward its cost estimate of the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository from its 1983 start to closure in 2133.
Officials said the new system life cycle cost estimate includes money needed to research, construct and operate Yucca Mountain for 150 years.

The new cost estimate of $79.3 billion, when updated to 2007 dollars totals $96.2 billion -- a 38-percent increase from the last published estimate in 2001 of $57.5 billion.

Ward Sproat, director of the department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said the updated estimate takes into account a substantial increase in the amount of waste to be shipped and stored at the repository and more than $16 billion for inflation.

http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Yucca_Mountain_cost_estimate_is_increased_999.html

[jtrockville]

1. How does $96b compare to waste storage cost of solar? or wind?

[tinrobot]

2. Who is footing the bill for this?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm suspecting it's taxpayer-funded with little or no reimbursement from the nuclear industry, which would amount to a free subsidy to nuclear power companies.