EPA issues tighter Yucca guidelines; Reid fears Bush will scuttle rules

Scott Sonner

Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001 | 9:42 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed tougher health and safety standards than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recommended for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada.

But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he's worried the incoming Bush administration will try to scuttle the EPA's proposed radiation standards and resort to NRC guidelines that provide no protection for groundwater.

"I would hope that President Bush will carefully review the standards recommended by the EPA and that he put the health and safety of Nevadans first in making any final determination," Reid said Friday.

Outgoing EPA Administrator Carol Browner issued the draft rules for Yucca Mountain as one of the final acts of the Clinton administration.

They would set an annual radiation exposure limit at the high level waste repository at 15 millirem, significantly lower than the 25 millirem standard the NRC has recommended.

The EPA rules would establish a separate standard of 4 millirem for the groundwater beneath Yucca Mountain. The NRC has recommended no specific groundwater protection.

"I am hopeful that the Bush administration will not attempt to soften these guidelines which are designed to protect people and the environment from exposure to deadly radiation," Reid said in a statement Friday.

EPA officials did not immediately return telephone messages at the agency's media office late Friday in Washington.

Browner said in a letter to Reid Thursday that radiation exposure no greater than 15 millirem "corresponds to a lifetime risk of approximately 3 chances in 10,000 of contracting fatal cancer.

"It is also at the upper bound of what EPA considers to be an acceptable risk," Browner said in a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The limit also is consistent with the risk range recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, Browner said.

"We believe that the citizens resources of Nevada deserve at least the same level of protection as any other area of the U.S.," she said.

"As you know, the repository is situated directly above a substantial groundwater aquifer that currently supplies water for human consumption, livestock and irrigation in that area.

"Therefore, we have included a separate ground protection standard consistent with regulations developed under the Safe Drinking Water Act," Browner said.

Reid, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, presided over a confirmation hearing this week for Bush's nominee to replace Browner, New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman.

Whitman indicated to Reid at the hearing and in a conversation afterwards that she advocates "shared responsibility" among the EPA and the NRC for Yucca Mountain, Reid's spokesman David Cherry said Friday.

But Cherry said Reid continues to be concerned about the fate of the EPA's proposal. He said Bush's picks for energy and interior secretary, Spencer Abraham and Gale Norton, respectively, have indicated support for moving ahead with the waste dump in Nevada.

"Our concern is all of these agencies will conspire to move ahead on Yucca Mountain," Cherry said.

Reid and other Democrats characterized Bush as a supporter of the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain during the presidential election. But Bush said he had not made up his mind and would base any decision on the scientific evidence.

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore both advocated the more stringent oversite of the EPA for Yucca Mountain while some congressional backers of the site have argued it should be under the jurisdiction of the NRC.