State may challenge approval of Yucca design guidelines

Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 | 8:38 a.m.

Nevada officials are considering legal options over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of guidelines that allow the Department of Energy to begin designing a repository at Yucca Mountain, a state official said.

State officials are upset that Nevada oversight experts had no chance to review the guidelines before the NRC approved them, said Joe Strolin, planning administrator for the Agency for Nuclear Projects.

The NRC approved the DOE's guidelines for siting a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, but it is a single step in a long process, officials said.

Agency for Nuclear Projects Executive Director Bob Loux met with NRC staff members in Washington on Sept. 27, but the commission had apparently approved the guidelines on Sept. 24 without public notice. Loux received a letter on Monday from NRC Chairman Richard Meserve saying the guidelines were approved last month.

Strolin promised a fight.

"They've got a long way to go, and there will be challenges at every step," he said.

The NRC made public on Tuesday made its decision regarding the approved guidelines, but warned the DOE that any "substantive" changes to the design of a repository to contain 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste would require a second review, NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner said.

The NRC is reviewing all security rules in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Gagner said.

Public Citizen, an environmental watchdog group founded by Ralph Nader, called the NRC's action a "rubber stamp" in the process of approving the nuclear dump.

"The DOE and NRC are collaborating to change the rules of the game and allow the ill-conceived Yucca Mountain Project to move forward," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program.