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November 15, 2009

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Editorial: Weak-kneed agency shows its true colors

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2001 | 9:17 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Energy has not yet determined whether Yucca Mountain is suitable for the burial of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste -- but don't tell that to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC, which is the agency that will license a repository if the DOE dubs it safe, already is looking for space in Las Vegas to hold licensing hearings. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

State officials are right to note that the NRC's hunt for an office here shows a bias in favor of building the repository -- a taint that truly independent regulators would not possess. For that matter, the NRC's reputation as weak-kneed regulator of the nuclear power industry is buttressed by this premature search. The NRC's actions to date show that it cannot be trusted with the critical task of licensing a repository to hold man's deadliest waste, a job that mandates objectivity, which that agency lacks.

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