Reid criticizes nuke commission over Yucca reference

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Sept. 15, 2000 | 11:31 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday for intimating that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site is a done deal.

Reid noted that the NRC, which holds the ultimate authority to approve or deny a proposed plan to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, referred to Yucca in an official document as the "permanent national repository."

The Department of Energy has been studying Yucca since 1987 and is completing an application to store the nation's high-level radioactive waste at the Nevada site. The NRC would be responsible for licensing the site.

"I was dismayed that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would automatically consider Yucca Mountain as a permanent repository without a scientific basis," Reid said in a written statement. "This implies that the NRC has already made a decision to license Yucca Mountain."

The reference to Yucca appeared in a draft version of the NRC's environmental impact statement for a proposed temporary nuclear waste storage site in Utah.

Reid sent a letter to NRC Chairman Richard Meserve requesting an explanation.

"As far as I am concerned, we are a very long way from making any decision concerning the fate of high-level nuclear waste in America," Reid wrote. "Sadly, it appears that NRC has made its judgment without the benefit of sound science or proper consideration as required by law."

"If the answer I receive from the NRC is not acceptable, I fully intend to ask the Clinton-Gore administration to rein in this loose cannon agency," Reid said in his statement.

NRC officials said Reid took the reference the wrong way.

"We certainly don't presume that the Yucca Mountain site is going to be licensed," NRC spokeswoman Mindy Landau said. "We have a lot of technical reviews under way. There are a lot of issues to be resolved. It's definitely not a fait accompli."