Board approves $1.2 million to keep Nevada nuke waste agency open

Tuesday, May 26, 1998 | 4:16 a.m.

The Board of Examiners took the action Tuesday after Gov. Bob Miller said the Nevada Nuclear Waste Projects Office was crucial in the state's fight against federal plans to locate the dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Legislative Interim Finance Committee is scheduled to take final action on the request at a June 23 meeting.

"I hope they would approve this because we're at a critical juncture in our battle against Congress and the nuclear power industry" over the proposed Yucca Mountain site, said Miller, a board member.

"We will be sending a very, very negative message to Congress if we don't approve it ... It's not the time to show a crack in our armor."

The $1.2 million in contingency funds would be enough to keep the agency open through March 1. At that time, the 1999 Legislature would consider whether to continue funding it.

The U.S. Department of Energy has frozen $691,000 in federal funds that the Nevada agency intended to spend, leaving it with only enough money to operate through July 1.

The Energy Department concluded in an audit that the state agency improperly shared public information with other states about scientific findings at Yucca Mountain.

The federal government charged that Nevada passed information indicating that Yucca Mountain was an unsafe location to dump nuclear waste, and that thousands of shipments of dangerous waste would pass through their communities.

The state office, established in 1983, has received millions of dollars in federal funding to monitor the Yucca Mountain study.

But Congress cut off funding from the office beginning in 1996 after a federal audit alleged that the state was improperly spending the money on such items as public relations.

A three-judge panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld Congress' decision to cut off funding, but the state has appealed to the full court.

The state's congressional delegation also is fighting the dump plans.