Residents say no to nuclear dump

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 9:54 a.m.

More than 80 Southern Nevada residents Tuesday urged the Department of Energy to find alternatives to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear dump.

Residents spoke during a 3 1/2-hour hearing of Yucca Mountain becoming a terrorist target. They worried that the radiation will escape into the air and water. They said the stigma of burying nuclear waste there will drive 31 million tourists away.

Las Vegas resident Celeste Thomas -- as her 4-year-old son Jace stood and shouted, "That's my mom" -- said studying ways to either reprocess spent nuclear fuel or transmuting the wastes into smaller and less radioactive material should be an option.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site the Department of Energy is studying as a high-level nuclear waste repository. Congress singled out the site for study in 1987.

The Energy Department is gathering comments on a supplemental draft environmental impact statement on the proposed repository. It is expected to make its recommendation next year on whether Yucca Mountain can safely hold the waste.

"Funding and finding alternatives to burying nuclear waste is a wise plan," Thomas said. "It would eliminate the citizens' concerns on burying nuclear waste for thousands of years."

Thomas referred to a proposal by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who plans to introduce a bill that would take the DOE's funding request of $445 million earmarked for Yucca Mountain and transfer the money into research on alternatives such as an advanced accelerator that would change the waste from highly radioactive to less dangerous materials that could be managed for 300 years.

The supplemental report weighs an alternative design that would allow the DOE to store 44,000 tons of nuclear waste on top of the mountain and bury it over 50 years, keeping the rock inside the repository cooler. The current plan is to bury more than 70,000 tons of spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors and attempt to keep it from the environment for 10,000 years.

For the first time, officials from the city of Las Vegas, Clark County, Nye County and the state protested the complex project and demanded extra time to study thousands of pages of documents before making comments.

Las Vegas spokesman Jim Pegus said Mayor Oscar Goodman and the Las Vegas City Council strongly oppose any further activity at Yucca Mountain and found the environmental studies "totally inadequate."

The city, the counties and the state asked for 45 more days to respond to the new design information and its impacts.

Jane Summerson, in charge of the DOE's environmental impact statement, said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham could decide to extend the comment period beyond the June 25 deadline.

The repository drew some support. A retired nuclear engineer from California, William Price, was one of three people who spoke in favor of the repository.

"I believe the nuclear industry needs a place to park the materials," he said.

Graduating high school senior Christopher Kuchuris said he learned about Yucca Mountain at a DOE-sponsored conference at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

"I support the science of Yucca Mountain, but I don't believe the site is ready," he said. Kuchuris said he plans to attend UNLV in the fall and may study medicine.