Thursday, Jan. 10, 2002 | 12:57 p.m.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended Yucca Mountain today as "scientifically sound and suitable" as a place to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, the first official step toward a national repository.
Abraham said about 11 a.m. that he will recommend to President Bush that Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a suitable place to bury nuclear waste.
Gov. Kenny Guinn said he told Abraham that, "I was damned disappointed in his decision and he was to expect my veto."
"We will fight this with every ounce of energy from the Oval Office to regulatory agencies," Guinn said.
Guinn said he was "outraged" that politics triumphed over scientific studies that the state has done. "The whole process stinks," the governor said.
For example, Guinn said, the Environmental Protection Agency has been much more liberal at setting Yucca Mountain radiation standards than for low-level nuclear waste or the plutonium burial site in New Mexico.
As he is allowed to do under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Guinn vowed to use his veto power if President Bush accepts Abraham's recommendation. He also vowed to sue the Department of Energy.
"I'll go all the way to the White House," Guinn said.
Guinn said earlier that he received a call from Karl Rove, a top advisor to President Bush, saying that a decision on Yucca Mountain would be made today or Friday.
Congress had asked for Abraham's decision by Feb. 28 on whether Yucca Mountain is a suitable place to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste.
Abraham this morning abided by a rule in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and first notified Guinn of his decision. The act requires him to wait 30 days after his notification of Guinn to forward his recommendation to the president.
The president has no time limit on deciding whether to place the dump at Yucca Mountain. If Bush goes forward with Yucca, Guinn then has 60 days to use his veto.
"I don't feel there is enough scientific evidence," Guinn said today regarding his view that Yucca Mountain poses a health threat to Nevadans. "There are too many questions. There were 293 unanswered questions raised by the General Accounting Office."
The issue goes to Congress if Nevada uses its veto power. Congress would have 90 days to override the Nevada veto. Guinn said both houses, by a simple majority, must approve the Yucca site.
Guinn said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has said the issue is dead. He said Daschle could hold up a vote for longer than 90 legislative days, thereby killing the plan.
There's a parliamentary question about whether Daschle has that authority. The governor said the attorneys in Washington, D.C., that were hired by the state are researching whether the Senate majority leader can pigeonhole the issue. And that could end up in court, Guinn said.
In addition, the Energy Department would still have to get approval to build from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And that could take years.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said this morning, "This was inevitable, but at the same time it's outrageous. It just indicates the complete bias the Department of Energy has toward building Yucca Mountain. It doesn't need to happen now. They have time to complete the studies."
Yucca Mountain has been under study as the nation's sole repository for nuclear waste since 1987.
Ensign said he and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., may lean on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who has said the Yucca project was dead as long as he and Reid were Senate leaders.
"We're checking into all the parliamentary options," Ensign said.
Ensign also said he would meet with Vice President Dick Cheney in the near future to argue against the Yucca recommendation.
Abraham's decision was hasty, dangerous and premature given "the mountain of evidence that the site is unsuitable," Reid said.
"After he receives the secretary's report, President Bush has an opportunity to cut through the bureaucratic pseudo-science, see this project for the sham that it is, and do the right thing for America and Nevada by changing course," Reid said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., was traveling outside the country but faxed to the Sun newsroom a statement, which said, "It is unfortunate that Secretary Abraham would continue green-lighting a project that has been riddle with corruption and mismanagement since its inception."
Abraham had told Guinn on Monday that a decision on Yucca Mountain was "imminent." Abraham had been in town to tour Yucca Mountain.
After his tour, the secretary told reporters, "I would say this completes the process of the course of study I have set out for myself." He was referring to thousands of scientific documents and at least 14,800 public comments made about the proposed repository.
Abraham appeared briefly in Nevada one other time in preparation for his decision. He flew with little advance notice Dec. 12 to Las Vegas to attend the 66th DOE hearing on Yucca Mountain. He said little at the meeting.
Congress in 1982 directed the Department of Energy to study three sites as possible burial grounds for the nation's high-level nuclear waste: Yucca, and sites in Washington state and Texas. Congress in 1987 directed the DOE to study only Yucca.
The proposal involves shipping waste now stored on-site at the nation's 103 active nuclear power plants, as well as waste from various Defense Department sites, to Nevada for permanent storage. Waste would be encased in high-tech metal casks placed in tunnels 1,000 feet below the surface at Yucca.
The project would need the final approval of the president, Congress, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before it could proceed.
Nevada officials have long opposed the proposal. They say the underground tunnels cannot contain radiation over thousands of years.
The DOE has spent roughly $8 billion to study Yucca Mountain in the last 20 years, making it one of the most scrutinized spots on earth, and studies are ongoing.
The department was required by law to open a repository in 1998, but does not expect nuclear waste shipments until 2010 at the earliest, based on the complex scientific studies. Nuclear power plant operators, who are eager to ship their waste to Yucca, have sued the DOE for missing the 1998 deadline.
Nevada officials are battling in court to delay progress at Yucca. They have challenged newly implemented DOE rules about containing radiation at the site, as well as DOE water rights at the site.
A General Accounting Office report issued Nov. 30 recommended that the Bush administration postpone the Yucca decision indefinitely. The GAO report cited a lack of information on ground water, earthquake and volcanic risk and container materials.
The GAO report also cited 293 unanswered scientific questions raised by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must license a repository. If Abraham recommends Yucca, the state is prepared to sue for a premature decision based on the 293 questions, Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects Director Bob Loux said.
But Lake Barrett, acting director of the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, told media representatives on Monday that the GAO recommendation will not delay Abraham's decision.
Barrett said Abraham's recommendation on Yucca's suitability is a separate issue from actually licensing, constructing and operating a repository. The DOE is planning to submit a license application for Yucca to the NRC by 2003, he said.
U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Alan Flint, who has worked on Yucca studies his entire career, said the scientific work should continue whether Abraham recommends the site or not.
"As a scientist, there are certain things to look at," Flint said, noting that Yucca studies are revealing important information about the dry layers known as the unsaturated zone and the ground water flowing in the saturated zone. "I hope the work continues," he said.
Meanwhile, Bechtel SAIC, DOE's main Yucca Mountain contractor, is revamping its strategy to balance finances, schedules and scientific research in case the Bush administration recommends the Nevada site for a nuclear waste repository.
Bechtel officials are facing budget shortages, a possible licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and ongoing questions about scientific issues such as ground water flows, underground containers and seismic activity.
Bechtel's approach to the project echoes recommendations contained in a congressional General Accounting Office report released last month that criticized Yucca Mountain's management.
The GAO said the DOE could face up to $50 billion in damages if nuclear utilities won most of 18 lawsuits filed against the agency after Yucca Mountain failed to open. The report said that there is no firm cost estimate or schedule of work to answer 293 outstanding technical issues.
In fact, the nuclear waste fund paying for Yucca Mountain studies has $11 billion left in it, after the DOE spent $8 billion in 20 years to study the site.
Bechtel told the GAO that it would take until 2006 to prepare enough scientific evidence on the mountain for a licensing application. The current target to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is 2003. Bechtel may change the date, spokesmen said.
Sun reporters Cy Ryan and Jeff German contributed to this report.
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