As such, it is one way President George W. Bush's group can deal with global warming, a major thorn for the administation since it reneged on the Kyoto Protocol in March. Resurrection of the nuclear industry, the aim of a bill introduced in March by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, constitutes a resurgence in proliferation of nuclear weapons material, said Gunter. What this poses is the threat of proliferation in terms of the number of holders of the basic building blocks of nuclear weapons. Storage of nuclear waste is another issue of major concern. The Department of Energy has long studied the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada but hasn't decided if the location is suitable.
Environmentalists point to the area's volcanic and seismic activity as evidence against the site.