State’s nuke dump attorney sure of victory

Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

RENO -- The lead lawyer in Nevada's fight to stop Yucca Mountain is so confident of victory that he's willing to accept a fee only if the state wins.

"I'll put my money where my mouth is," Joseph Egan said.

Egan said he does not believe the Energy Department will ever open the proposed nuclear dump about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"We don't expect to win every battle but we're going to win the war," said Egan, considered an expert on nuclear law.

His statement was made as the $4 million team of legal experts hired by the state completed a two-day strategy session on lawsuits and the fight before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on licensing the project.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said the state will need more money from the 2003 Legislature for its legal effort. She said she is confident that Gov. Kenny Guinn would support the plan.

"The state will be outspent, but that is no reason to give up," she said.

The state also disclosed Tuesday that the Energy Department is advertising for private lawyers to handle the licensing case before the regulatory commission for $16.9 million.

Del Papa said the $4 million may seem like a lot, but the government is spending $58 billion in developing the dumpsite.

"This is unsafe at any price," she said.

Charles Cooper, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department during the Reagan administration, hinted the state would file another suit to go with six pending cases. His research, he said, showed that federal agencies violated their constitutional duties in handling the Yucca Mountain issue.

Cooper said he intends to make a recommendation in the next few weeks to the state on a course of action.

Bill Briggs, a former solicitor of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said he doesn't expect the Energy Department to file its application until December 2004 and that the hearings will take a minimum of three years.

Briggs said other states, Indian tribes and local governments may join in the battle.

Antonio Rossman, an attorney who specializes in land use and natural resources law, called Yucca Mountain "one of the gravest mistakes the government has ever made."

Del Papa said the court battle will heat up in the next year and a half and that the hearings could last for six years.

Court hearings will start in February in Washington on the first of the cases.

One or more of the cases could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, Egan said.

Nevada's legal team is watching a case involving Pico Energy in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pico has entered into a contract with the Energy Department for the storage of spent fuel.

The storage can be done at a fraction of the cost without transporting the waste across the nation, Egan said. The nuclear industry is opposed to the plan.

If Pico wins, Egan said, "We think there is no need for Yucca Mountain."

He said the Energy Department might back off building Yucca Mountain because of high costs and moral issues.

Egan said the Nevada team has been talking to Arizona and California about filing briefs in the cases to side with Nevada. He said they are thinking about talking to officials in South Carolina, Mississippi and Kentucky to join the effort.