Editorial: Showdown is set over licensing

Tuesday, May 22, 2001 | 8:34 a.m.

Whether the Department of Energy builds a nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain could hinge on which federal agency the White House sides with in a dispute over safety standards for a proposed dumpsite. In the final days of the Clinton administration, the Environmental Protection Agency recommended a relatively tough set of standards limiting radiation levels at a repository. President Bush, however, has yet to say if he will implement these pending recommendations.

While Nevada officials argued that even the EPA's radiation rules should have been stricter, they certainly were better than the guidelines suggested by the industry-friendly Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The reason why this issue is so important is that the nuclear power industry has argued that if the EPA's regulations are adopted, it could make it impossible to build a repository at Yucca Mountain.

That is why it was so disturbing to learn last week that officials from the EPA, the NRC and the DOE have been meeting to see if there is a way to forge common ground on the issue. But there should be no compromising on safety. While the NRC would license a repository, by law it is supposed to adhere to the standards set by the EPA. Nevadans also were understandably anxious last week when EPA Administrator Christie Whitman declined to tell reporters whether she supported her predecessor's radiation licensing standards. Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who also is the assistant minority leader, did say later in the week that Whitman recently gave him assurances that she would do everything that she could to get the EPA standard implemented. (Reid had been threatening to block Bush's EPA appointments until the EPA's standard was adopted.)

Typically a commitment from a Cabinet secretary to a U.S. senator would be cause for relief. But this is the same White House that already has overridden Whitman on other high-profile environmental issues. It also isn't very reassuring that Bush's national energy plan unveiled last week favors that of energy producers over that of sound environmental regulations. Nuclear waste storage isn't just any ordinary engineering project, though. The federal government is trying to build a structure that would safely hold man's deadliest waste for the next 10,000 years. Shortcuts are not an option in such a risky venture. During last year's campaign, Bush pledged to Nevadans that he would uphold the EPA's radiation standards on Yucca Mountain. Now that he is president, it is time for him to honor his commitment.