DOE: Yucca waste would be safe

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2001 | 11:09 a.m.

Public hearings The Energy Department has scheduled public hearings on a possible recommendation of Yucca Mountain as a high-level nuclear waste repository. The deadline for written comments is Sept. 20.

HEARINGS:

WRITTEN COMMENTS: Address written comments to Carol Hanlon, U.S. Department of Energy, Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office, (M/S #025), P.O. Box 30307, North Las Vegas, NV, 89036-0307, or by electronic mail to YMP]SR@ ymp.gov. Written comments should be identified on the outside of the envelope and on the comments themselves with: "Possible Site Recommendation for Yucca Mountain."

To submit by FAX: 1-800-967-0739.

Nuclear waste buried 1,000 feet inside Yucca Mountain would pose no public health threat for at least 10,000 years, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the Energy Department.

The report is another step by the DOE toward recommending the site as the nation's nuclear waste repository.

Radiation equal to one-tenth of a chest X-ray emanates from natural sources, such as uranium, already found in the mountain's volcanic rocks, DOE scientists said in the report. The 77,000 tons of nuclear waste that would be buried at Yucca Mountain would not contribute to current radiation levels, DOE scientists say.

Nevada officials aren't convinced.

The state is prepared to spend up to $3 million to fight federal efforts to open what would be the world's first high-level nuclear waste repository.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has gained approval to spend $4 million -- dubbed the Nuclear Protection Fund -- to hire an out-of-state law firm that specializes in nuclear issues, Chief of Staff Marybel Batjer said. The remaining money would be used to launch a national public information campaign.

The state is coordinating its legal efforts with all Nevada counties and cities, Batjer said. Former Sen. Richard Bryan, a Democrat, and former Attorney General Brian McKay, a Republican, are leading a team to study the impact of nuclear waste entering Nevada, she said.

The findings in DOE's "Preliminary Site Suitability Evaluation" were not unexpected, state officials said.

Still, a lengthy political and regulatory process faces the DOE before a repository could open, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said.

"Any decision regarding a permanent repository for this nation's nuclear waste will be made based on sound science," Abraham said in a prepared statement. "The measures I am taking today are designed to assist me in this effort."

The public has until Sept. 20 to comment on the latest DOE evaluation.

"After studying Yucca Mountain for over 20 years, the secretary of energy is now considering whether the site should be recommended to the President," Lake Barrett, DOE's acting director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said in a notice published in the Federal Register Tuesday.

Federal scientists continue to study the mountain, according to the report. No longer focusing on the consequences of earthquakes or a nuclear criticality -- an event that could produce a runaway nuclear chain reaction if too much waste piled up in a small space -- the DOE is reviewing the potential and fallout of a volcanic eruption or human intrusion.

The containers that would hold the nuclear waste would remain intact during an earthquake registering 6.0 magnitude on the Richter scale or higher, according to the report.

Once Abraham considers public comments he can recommend Yucca Mountain to President Bush. The president would then recommend the site to Congress.

Once a recommendation is in congressional hands the state has 60 days to officially disapprove the Yucca Mountain repository.

The mountain's development as a repository cannot continue unless Congress passes a joint resolution to override the state approve the site. The president would then have to sign off on the proposal.

It could then take up to four years for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to permit repository construction.

At the earliest, a repository would open at Yucca Mountain in 2010.

The DOE has already signed Chicago-based Winston & Strawn for $16 million to represent the government in its effort to secure the site. However, the DOE Inspector General is investigating the firm for alleged conflict of interest. Winston & Strawn represented the DOE, which by law must remain impartial on Yucca Mountain, while it lobbied for the nuclear industry.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he was disappointed, though not surprised, by the DOE document. Reid called the report "window dressing" on behalf of the nuclear industry.

"Although they claim that science will serve as the basis for an open public review of this proposal, there is precious little evidence that they will really do so," Reid said in a prepared statement.

"The Department of Energy has long since made up its mind that it is willing to manipulate the science and cast aside any veil of objectivity in their zealous pursuit of shipping deadly radioactive waste through America's heartland to Nevada."

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., had not seen the report. He said he would comment after reviewing the document, spokeswoman Traci Scott said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., did respond, however.

"This document once again proves just how badly this country has distorted the original standards of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act," Berkley said. "The federal government is preparing to spend an astronomical $58 billion to bury nuclear waste just outside Las Vegas, and we are not even being given an honest assessment of the risks involved."

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., had not reviewed the report, according to a spokeswoman.

"It's not news to us, it is not a shocking revelation and it is something we expected," said Gibbons' spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer.

Officials with the Nuclear Energy Institute, the lobbying arm of the nuclear industry, say it is time to move forward with Yucca Mountain.

"The project is already 12 years behind schedule," Joe Colvin, NEI's president and chief executive officer, said. "And after nearly 20 years of in-depth scientific investigation of every environmental facet of Yucca Mountain, there is no reason for further delay."