Clinton wary of Yucca safety

Friday, April 13, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

FALLON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said she is concerned about health and safety standards for a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, but added that she does not oppose the project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Clinton, who has nuclear power plants in her state, made her remarks during a media conference Thursday after a Senate committee hearing in this rural and military town 60 miles east of Reno that brought politicians, parents and experts to a panel led by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"I am going to follow closely any standard for Yucca Mountain," Clinton said after the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works concluded a 4-hour field hearing on a dozen childhood leukemias in Fallon. No common environmental exposure has been linked to the leukemias.

There have been two radiation exposure limits set for ground water at Yucca Mountain if 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste are ever buried there.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a standard of 15 millirems of total radiation exposure and 4 millirem for ground water. Chest X-rays average roughly 10 millirems.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has suggested a 25 millirem limit on radiation exposure with no standard for ground water.

"Whether we talk about Yucca Mountain or anywhere else, we have to stick to scientifically based standards," Clinton said.

Earlier Clinton said that funding for clean drinking water and treatment of sewage was "woefully underfunded."

America's cities and small towns such as Fallon will have to spend millions of dollars to build treatment plants in the next 25 years, Clinton said.