City maps strategy for Yucca suits against feds

Erin Neff

Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said the city's initial examination of potential lawsuits against the federal government appears to merit bringing the case to court.

But in exactly which court the city should try to fight the proposed high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain remains uncertain.

"They're thinking about legal actions that aren't specific to the (1987 Nuclear Waste Police Act)," said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency. "They're trying to think about how not to do that."

Goodman, who met with Loux this week for a Yucca Mountain briefing, said the city is trying to think "outside the box."

"We have some theories that have never been tried before," Goodman said.

Eight previous lawsuits by the state, all filed in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in the late 1980s, were thrown out. In each case the court ruled the federal government would have to actually name Yucca Mountain the permanent site before Nevada had a valid case.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been the only site nationwide under consideration to store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste.

The appellate court is designated as the proper venue to hear complaints related to nuclear waste, based on the 1987 act.

But based on past results the city would not likely win any injunctions against the Energy Department in that setting, and would not be able to have evidentiary hearings there, Loux said.

Loux will join Goodman on his Town Hall live call-in television program Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. to answer questions about Yucca Mountain. The show airs on the city's cable channel, KCLV Cox cable Channel 2.