Residents skeptical about access to Yucca hearings

Wednesday, May 23, 2001 | 10:20 a.m.

PAHRUMP -- If Yucca Mountain is recommended as the site to store the nation's high-level nuclear waste, computers will make hearings to license a repository more accessible than previously possible, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Tuesday.

But about 30 residents of this rural community just 25 miles from Yucca Mountain were not impressed.

"Pahrump is 20 years behind the times," Pahrump Valley resident Sally Devlin said of the area's computer access. She asked how the NRC staff expected the farming and retirement town to take advantage of the digitized volumes of documents expected to be put online.

Commission lawyers described the Licensing Support Network the NRC will initiate, if the DOE recommends Yucca Mountain as a repository. All documents supporting or contradicting the DOE's evidence will be posted on the Internet, NRC general counsel Dennis Dambly said.

The computerized files will allow those challenging the project a chance to see the DOE's evidence, he said. But rural residents were skeptical of their ability to find, download and analyze all of the information.

Citizen Alert, a statewide watchdog group, made a formal request for those documents on paper. Kalynda Tilges, nuclear coordinator for Citizen Alert, asked for access and help so remote residents can review the documents.

The NRC staff also explained the process to the residents.

Months before the NRC hearing begins, commission staff will review technical information, Bill Reamer, NRC's chief of the High-Level Waste Branch, said. If there is not enough scientific evidence, DOE will not be allowed to proceed to a formal hearing, he said.

"The NRC is not a developer or a promoter of Yucca Mountain," Reamer said.

Once the NRC staff reviews thousands of pages of scientific documents, the Atomic Safety Licensing Board, made up of an attorney and two scientific experts, will decide who participates in the formal hearing. Individuals or organizations have to prove direct harm from a repository to participate.

Susi Snyder, a Pahrump resident working with the Native American Shundahai Network, wanted to know how people such as rural Nevada residents could follow the complex NRC hearings. The commission will not only license the DOE for building a repository, but conduct a second hearing before the DOE could accept nuclear waste in 2010.

"What assurances do we have that members of the Atomic Safety Licensing Board are not old gray men in old gray suits with old gray brains?" Snyder asked.

The NRC and its safety board will base any decisions on the evidence presented during the hearings, Chandler said.