House to vote on nuclear waste later this spring

Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

A bill that would allow shipping 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste to Nevada by 2003 has been tentatively scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives this spring.

A similar bill has passed in the Senate by a 64-34 vote, not enough votes to override a promised veto by President Clinton, and the issue was thought to be dead for this Congress.

The House bill would require the Department of Energy to ship 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, by 2003. The legislation could come up for a vote between April and the Fourth of July recess, staffers said.

The Senate bill requires the government to begin storing high-level waste above ground at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, by 2007. Yucca Mountain is the only site under study for a permanent repository for 77,000 tons of waste from commercial nuclear power plants and defense activities. If it passes scientific muster, it is not due to open until 2010 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from some nuclear utilities to force the DOE to store highly radioactive waste.

The high court's rebuff on Monday left the nuclear utilities at the mercy of congressional action and seeking another legal avenue to seek monetary damages in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The utilities sought legal relief after the DOE failed to meet a January 1998 deadline in the contract to begin removing 40,000 tons of radioactive reactor wastes as required under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

But the DOE failed to open a nuclear waste repository and a deep underground cavern at Yucca Mountain will not be ready until 2010 at the earliest.

Nevada's entire congressional delegation vowed to continue fighting the high-level nuclear waste issue.

Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said via staff members that they were prepared to fight any move on nuclear waste.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the court's decision was very important. "It prevents the court from becoming entangled in a policy decision," Reid said.

While the nuclear utilities can sue for money damages, they cannot force the DOE to take the wastes, Reid said.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., termed the high court's decision "significant" because the utilities are entitled to some compensation if they seek it in a different court.

"This is not about relief, it's about greed," Bryan said of the legal challenge by the utilities.

About a year ago Energy Secretary Bill Richardson offered to take title to the nuclear wastes piling up at reactors across the country, but many utilities refused his offer to leave it on site.