Plenty of chances to comment on Yucca report, DOE insists

Monday, Dec. 21, 1998 | 11:22 a.m.

The Department of Energy promised that Nevada residents will have a chance to be heard on its five-volume Yucca Mountain report to Congress, which details 15 years worth of work in determining whether the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is suitable for use as the nation's nuclear dumping ground.

The first public meeting will be scheduled in Las Vegas with local officials at the end of January.

The so-called viability assessment is "a snapshot" of work conducted at Yucca Mountain, DOE Undersecretary Ernest Moniz said on Friday after the report was released.

"The report does not say Yucca Mountain is suitable," he said.

The DOE will continue to study Yucca Mountain, chosen by Congress as the only site under study for a high-level nuclear waste depository, according to the report, which did not address recent safety issues.

"It is out there precisely to be read by the public, including groups like the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board," said Moniz. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Boarfd is an independent scientific panel appointed by the president to oversee the nuclear waste project. Moniz promised meetings around the country, but no dates have been set.

Following the informal meetings, the DOE is expected to release a draft environmental impact statement on Yucca Mountain this summer, said Lake Barrett, DOE's acting director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

"Then there will be formal hearings," he said.

Before Congress got the report out of its wrapper, environmental and consumer groups called for Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to disqualify the volcanic mountain based on the information contained in the assessment.

The groups, including Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, submitted a petition earlier this month calling for the energy secretary to halt work at Yucca Mountain.

"The data within the Department of Energy's viability assessment confirmed that the site must be disqualified," a statement released by 219 organizations said.

Citing rapid water travel times from the proposed dump to water supply wells, the organizations said by law the energy secretary has to disqualify Yucca Mountain.

"We object to the content of the report for its optimistic conclusions," the groups said. "Our petition has highlighted clear evidence of showstoppers. It is time for the DOE to stop the show and disqualify Yucca Mountain."

In addition, the cost of a dump at Yucca Mountain has risen steadily, from hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1980s to $36.6 billion, without considering expenses for temporary storage.

Congress has attempted twice to pass bills putting 30,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Under a veto threat by President Clinton, the legislation failed both times.

An independent cost study done for the state of Nevada in February showed a $25 billion shortfall.

"It would be outrageous for DOE to make the decision to go forward with more work at Yucca Mountain when the evidence in their own study -- a leaky mountain, leaky containers and earthquakes -- disqualify the site," the groups said. "It is time to move on and stop wasting billions of dollars."