Nuclear office gets emergency funding

Friday, June 26, 1998 | 11:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An emergency appropriation of $375,000 is going to the state Nuclear Waste Project Office to keep it afloat until Sept. 30 but the agency director says it won't be able to do its job properly with the reduced funding.

The Legislative Interim Finance Committee Thursday chopped the request for $1.2 million to allow the office to operate until March next year. Committee members expressed concern about the agency and some of the contracts it has awarded.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said there was no argument this agency must oversee the Department of Energy which is studying the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, said he's been an opponent of this office but added the state needs oversight. He suggested there may be changes in the office when a new state administration takes over.

Bob Loux, director of the office, rejected suggestions the research by his office was politically motivated. The research, he said, resulted in the DOE changing its plans about the movement of underground water at the proposed site.

After the meeting, Loux said his office will have to postpone review of the DOE's draft environmental report on Yucca Mountain.

Gov. Bob Miller issued a statement after the committee's vote, saying it "did the right thing today by making a solid down payment on Nevada's continued oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project."

He agreed with Raggio that the funding of the state office was a federal responsibility. The DOE is withholding $691,000 because it claims the state office made improper expenditures.

Loux said there's a possibility that the state may sue the federal government to release the money.

In fiscal 1996, the DOE decided not to give the state office any more money so the agency has been operating using federal funds saved from prior fiscal years.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said the $375,000 will help the agency over the hump and give lawmakers three months to evaluate the operation.