EPA toughens Yucca rules

Monday, Jan. 22, 2001 | 11:26 a.m.

On the final day of the Clinton administration, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday released stringent radiation limits for a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

However, the final word will lie with the Bush administration, and Nevada officials say they fear the standards will be weakened once they reach the president's desk.

The EPA's two-part rule would allow a Yucca repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to release 15 millirems of total radiation each year for 10,000 years. Another 4 millirems annually could be released into the ground water. An average chest X-ray equals 10 millirems.

Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied to store 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and defense activities.

The EPA set a more stringent standard than one proposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would have to license the repository. The NRC's proposed standard would allow 25 millirems of radiation a year to escape the repository and would not set a separate standard for ground water.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission drafted its rule about the same time last year that the EPA first proposed its lower radiation limits. The current law requires the Environmental Protection Agency to set the standards for radiation releases at a high-level nuclear waste repository, but supporters of the repository in Congress have pushed for the NRC standard.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he is concerned that the Bush administration will reject the EPA's draft radiation standards.

Unlike other proposals, the EPA recommended a separate standard for ground water to protect those living near the proposed dump site, Reid said.

Nuclear industry supporters have said that the EPA's proposal would disqualify a Yucca Mountain repository because of the ground water limit.

The new radiation limit would be in effect for 10,000 years, outgoing EPA Administrator Carol Browner wrote to Reid, who requested a copy of the agency's rule. The EPA proposal will not be made public until the Office of Management and Budget reviews it.

Exposure to radiation under the EPA limit corresponds to a lifetime risk of three chances in 10,000 of developing a fatal cancer, she said.

The EPA proposal is aimed at the most at-risk person, those farming at Lathrop Wells, about 32 miles from the Yucca Mountain site, and sets the same standard for radiation established in the the Safe Drinking Water Act -- 4 millirems, Brower's letter said.

"We believe that the citizens and resources of Nevada deserve at least the same level of protection as any other part of the U.S.," Browner wrote.

But Browner's letter was unclear whether measurements of air and water would be taken at the repository boundary or 20 miles farther away, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"It's good news and bad news," Loux said.

State officials, including Reid, are hoping the EPA rule holds fast, but first hints from the Bush administration are not promising.

Last week, when New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, the Bush nominee for EPA administrator, appeared before a Senate confirmation committee, she urged cooperation between the EPA and NRC in setting the repository radiation limit.

Reid expressed his displeasure at her answer. He has opposed the NRC's version of the radiation rules.

Only the EPA should set the radiation standards for Yucca Mountain, Reid said. "I would hope that President Bush carefully reviews the standards recommended by the EPA and that he puts the health and safety of Nevadans first in making any final determination," Reid said.

"The EPA has now issued its draft rules setting health and safety standards for Yucca Mountain, and 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, the Senate's assistant Democratic leader, said.