Yucca environmental statement held up

Thursday, July 22, 1999 | 10:12 a.m.

The release of a draft environmental impact statement on a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain has been delayed at least a week, a Department of Energy official said.

DOE spokesman Allen Benson said the document that will explain environmental impacts if a high-level nuclear waste repository is built 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas should be available on Aug. 6.

The document will contain information about ongoing scientific studies at the site that Congress singled out as the only place to explore for a repository in 1987.

The draft statement will propose transportation routes for shipping 70,000 tons of highly radioactive waste by road and rail but does not designate a favored route, Benson said.

The document will explain experiments under way on how fast ground water moves through the mountain, how heat affects the rock and if bacteria in the mountain might corrode nuclear waste containers.

The public will have 90 days to read and comment on the draft environmental impact statement, Benson said during an appearance on POV Vegas, the Sun's television discussion show, which airs on Las Vegas 1, Cox Cable channels 1 and 39, daily at 5, 6, and 8 p.m.

The statement will be available in paper, on CD-ROM and on the DOE's website (www.ymp.gov) Benson said.

Clark County officials are concerned about transportation, economic impacts from burying nuclear waste near a thriving destination resort and environmental justice, county Nuclear Waste Director Dennis Bechtel said.

The county plans to offer the public a workshop to teach people how to read and respond to the DOE's statement, Bechtel said.

Although the document will not be available, people can go to the Clark County Government Center's Pueblo Room from 3 to 8 p.m. on July 29 for help, Bechtel said.

Judy Treichel, director of the Nuclear Waste Task Force that offers information about the Yucca Mountain Project, said the DOE's impact statement will not tell people information about alternatives to deep geological disposal of nuclear wastes or alternative sites to Yucca Mountain. Congress stopped a nationwide search in 1987.

A 90-day public comment period is not long enough to review such a complex document, Treichel said.

"There is so much uncertainty, there are so many unknowns and it (a repository) has to last for hundreds of thousands of years," Treichel said.

The state of Nevada asked the DOE for a 180-day comment period, but Benson said the department is sticking to 90 days.