Miller: Too late for DOE to change rules

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Gov. Bob Miller says it's too late in the game for the U.S. Department of Energy to change the rules for siting a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

The DOE wants to amend the siting criteria but Miller says no way. He fears the changes will make it easier to justify constructing the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In a letter Monday to outgoing Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, Miller said Nevada will sue the DOE if the proposed changes are not scrapped.

Miller's fears are echoed by the Nuclear Waste Project Office, the state agency charged with monitoring the federal government's study of Yucca Mountain for its suitability as the nation's repository for high-level nuclear waste.

Twelve years ago, it was agreed that any of 10 specific conditions could disqualify Yucca Mountain as a potential site. The conditions included the presence of water and also had to do with water rights, transportation, population and other factors.

Now, the DOE wants to pitch that agreement in favor of a "total system performance" concept verified through computer models.

"This revision of the guidelines is a blatant case of the DOE's disregard for the safety requirements of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act," said Bob Loux, director of the Nuclear Waste Project Office. "We believe the DOE can't find Yucca Mountain suitable under the 12-year-old guidelines."

Loux said his office believes the proposed guidelines are illegal.

Loux said he, too, will recommend to Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa that the state take legal action if the changes go through.

The DOE says the amendments would concentrate regulatory review on analyzing overall performance at Yucca Mountain. The agency hopes to "enhance its ability to offer the public a more understandable conclusion" about how suitable the site is for developing a permanent waste dump for commercial and defense radioactive wastes.

The DOE has scheduled two public meetings on the issue on Jan. 23 at UNLV's Moyer Student Union, Lounge 201. The times are 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.

To register to comment at the hearing, people may call (800) 967-3477 no later than 4:30 p.m. Jan. 17.

The public may submit written comments on the amendments until Feb. 14.

The DOE noted in its request to change the rules that the original guidelines were used in nominating five sites as suitable for study.

Then-President Ronald Reagan recommended three sites for study, including Yucca Mountain, on May 28, 1986.

Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1987, singling out Yucca Mountain as the sole site for study as a national high-level nuclear dump.

This year, Congress directed the DOE to focus on only activities necessary to assess the performance of a nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain. The DOE responded by proposing the guideline amendments.