Trump Rails Against Ron 'Sanctimonious' Over Vote For Yucca Nuclear Waste Site

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been strugging to overcome ex-president Donald Trump's poll lead among registered Republican voters, hoping to snatch up the GOP nomination allowing him to challenge Democrat Joe Biden in the 2024 race to the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Trump has been lambasting his rival over past policy stances.

Donald Trump has skewered Ron DeSantis (R) over the support the Florida Governor has shown for a plan to store US nuclear waste at a site deep within Yucca Mountain, in Nevada.

“If you don’t mind nuclear waste dumped in your backyard, I suggest you vote for Ron DeSanctimonious,” Trump said at a Las Vegas campaign rally on Saturday, wielding yet again a nickname he had coined for his top Republican rival for nomination in the 2024 race to the White House.

The US has been trying to set up a permanent national nuclear waste disposal site, as about 88,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from its commercial reactors are "stranded" at reactor sites spread out across around 35 states, according to the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. In 2002, Congress approved the construction of a repository within Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Under then-President Barack Obama that project was torpedoed. In 2012, a panel of experts published a set of recommendations that suggested creating "interim storage facilities" for nuclear fuel and waste until the government developed a permanent repository.

Under the presidency of DonaldTrump there was an attempt to restart the Yucca Mountain project, however, coming up against tremendous backlash and opposition, the 45th POTUS finally tweeted: “Nevada, I hear you on Yucca Mountain.”

Screenshot of Twitter post by then-President Donald Trump.

© Photo : Twitter

Trump had vowed that his administration would explore "innovative alternatives" to the controversial option.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) insisted that Yucca Mountain was selected because it had the best technical and scientific characteristics for serving as a repository. It was in a desert location, far from population centers, the site would be potentially 1,000 feet under the surface, protected by "natural geologic barriers." Those against the stalled project argued that Yucca was in an active seismic region, boasting earthquake faults, as well as other concerns.

Ron DeSantis, however, then representing Florida's 6th congressional district in the US House of Representatives, in 2013 voted in favor of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which had incorporated a provision to reopen the Yucca Mountain waste repository after Congress scrapped funding for the site two years earlier.

Elswhere during his rally speech, Trump contined to lob verbal jabs at DeSantis, saying:

“I’m not a big fan of his and he’s highly overrated. He’s highly overrated... Remember, he’s the one that wanted to cut Social Security. He’s the one that wanted to raise the minimum age and he voted on this.”

Before the campaign event in Las Vegas, Trump went on the social media site of his own creation,Truth Social, to claim that DeSantis was “desperately trying to get out” of the 2024 fray.

“Ron DeSanctimonious is desperately trying to get out of the Presidential race, while at the same time saving face for 2028, where he has been greatly damaged,” Trump wrote, adding, “Ron is just wasting time!”

Donald Trump currently boasts 52.4 percent support among potential voters, according to Real Clear Politics average of polls. Ron DeSantis is seen as trailing the ex-president with just 21.5 percent support.