Lawsuit threatened as Yucca hearings near

Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

Environmental activists say they will sue the Energy Department if the agency fails to delay a public hearing on a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

The hearing, the first of three, is scheduled at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the DOE's Nevada Operations Office at 232 Energy Way, west of Losee Road, in North Las Vegas. The public comment period begins at 6 p.m.

The hearing was originally scheduled for the Suncoast, but the DOE changed the venue after resort officials said the hotel could not accommodate or provide security for the hundreds expected to attend.

Judy Treichel, executive director of the Nuclear Waste Task Force, a Las Vegas-based organization that distributes information on Yucca, said two East Coast attorneys who specialize in environmental issues have sent a letter to groups across the country to protest the hearings.

"If the DOE refuses to stop the hearing, then we will go to court," Treichel said.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said he had not seen the letter today and, consequently, could not comment.

"We are carrying out what Congress has ordered," he said. "The information gathered at the hearing will be used in the decision-making."

The public hearings will give the public a final opportunity to comment on the Yucca Mountain project before Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommends the site -- which would serve as a repository for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste -- to President Bush.

Public hearings are also scheduled Sept. 12 in Amargosa Valley and Sept. 13 in Pahrump.

Gov. Kenny Guinn and the state's congressional delegation wants Abraham to delay the hearings and extend the public comment period beyond the Sept. 20 deadline, set by the DOE. On Aug. 21 the DOE released a 370-page report -- Preliminary Site Suitability Evaluation -- that details ongoing work by scientists and engineers at the site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Guinn last week threatened to go to court to stop the hearing, but state attorneys did not have enough time to prepare a request for an injunction, which would have been considered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, passed in 1982, all cases concerning Yucca Mountain are sent to the appeals court in San Francisco.

The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, the state agency overseeing Yucca, is encouraging area residents to attend the hearing in North Las Vegas and voice their opinions.

The DOE will broadcast Wednesday's hearing live on the Internet beginning at 6 p.m. Residents can access the hearing at www.ymp.gov.

The hearing will also be broadcast beginning at 6 p.m. on Cox Cable channels Las Vegas 1 and 39.

Protests intensified Monday when about 40 demonstrators, dressed in nuclear containment gear, marched for two hours on the Strip from the Bellagio to the Fashion Show mall.

"Our main message is to get people out to the meetings," said Kalynda Tilges, nuclear coordinator for Citizen Alert who coordinated the march.

"The Department of Energy cannot mute public opposition," Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, said.