Berkley urges EPA official to study Yucca radiation

Thursday, May 3, 2001 | 10:49 a.m.

As two federal agencies battle over the amount of radiation that would be allowed to escape from a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, a Nevada representative has asked for an independent review.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., requested on Wednesday that Environmental Protection Agency Ombudsman Robert Martin investigate the issue.

Last year the EPA offered a 15 millirem limit with a separate 4 millirem ground water standard for an individual exposed to radiation escaping from a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. An average chest X-ray emits 10 millirems.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed a limit of 25 millirems without a separate ground water standard for the mountain under study by the Department of Energy.

The Bush administration has delayed any decisions on the rules.

Berkley said she learned that DOE and NRC officials have met with the EPA, asking for a change in the environmental agency's proposed radiation rule. The DOE and the NRC do not want a specific limit to radiation in ground water and have requested the EPA set a total radiation exposure standard of 25 millirems.

"Your independent investigative authority allows you to be an honest broker in this process and offers the participating agencies your objective, science-based recommendations," Berkley wrote to Martin.

NRC Deputy Director Carl Paperiello said this week at a nuclear waste conference in Las Vegas that the commission will adopt any radiation standard for Yucca Mountain that the EPA sets.