NRC proposing change in rules governing Yucca

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2002 | 10:01 a.m.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing a change in rules governing a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

If adopted, the new rules could make it a little easier for the Department of Energy to comply with environmental protection standards.

The NRC is giving the public 75 days to comment on the proposed changes, which will be published in the Federal Register in the next few days, NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner said.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is expected to recommend Yucca Mountain as the burial site for 77,000 tons of radioactive waste from commercial reactors and defense activities to President Bush after Feb. 10.

The NRC is proposing to eliminate rules governing what it calls unlikely events: a volcanic eruption or humans drilling into the waste buried about 1,000 feet beneath the surface of Yucca Mountain.

NRC staff believes those two incidents have less than a 10 percent chance of occurring within 10,000 years, Gagner said. A repository at Yucca Mountain by law must contain the waste's radioactivity for 10,000 years.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who with the rest of Nevada's congressional delegation has been a vocal opponent of the nuclear dump, had not seen the regulation this morning and had no comment, his spokesman Nathan Naylor said. Representatives of Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., were not available this morning.

Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects staff is reviewing the proposal, executive director Bob Loux said.

"We're not sure what effect it will have, but it seems to make the standard a little easier to comply with," Loux said.

The NRC, by law, must license a high-level nuclear waste repository before the facility can begin operation.

If Congress overrides Gov. Kenny Guinn's expected veto of the Yucca repository the NRC would need three to four years to examine scientific evidence from the mountain.