Nevadans given more time to study nuclear waste site

Tuesday, July 27, 1999 | 10:32 a.m.

The Department of Energy has agreed to extend a public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson consented on Monday to a request from Nevada officials to a six-month period for review and comments. The original time span was three months.

Nevada's congressional delegation and state officials had objected to the short time frame for public comment.

Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan took credit for the extended comment period.

"Nevadans should have more than 90 days to review the possible long-term environmental impacts of constructing a high-level nuclear waste storage site 90 miles from Las Vegas," Reid said.

The congressional legislation in 1987 that created Yucca Mountain as the sole study site for a radioactive repository to bury 70,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste specified the six-month review.

Earlier this year DOE officials announced that they would reduce the review period to meet tight schedules and a slim budget. The DOE plans to decide in 2001 if the mountain is suitable to submit for licensing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If licensed, a repository could not open before 2010.

"It was absolutely unconscionable that the DOE was originally going to attempt to shut off public comment after only 90 days," Bryan said.

"Unfortunately, the battle to keep high-level nuclear waste out of Nevada is going to remain a long-term battle," Bryan said, referring to a successful fight earlier this year to stop temporary storage of the radioactive waste at the Nevada Test Site.

Jack Finn, Gov. Kenny Guinn's spokesman, said the extended comment period was good for the state and the public.

"Any opportunity to get as much public input as possible is good news and provides an opportunity to base this decision on science and not politics," Finn said.

The DOE has announced another delay. The draft environmental impact statement due out Friday will become available no earlier than Aug. 6, an official said last week.