Goodman files Yucca petition in Washington

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's recommendation to build a high-level nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain will cause "immediate and irreparable harm" to Las Vegas, the city charged in a court documents filed in federal court today.

Filed jointly by the city of Las Vegas and Clark County, the petition for review asks the Washington, D.C.-based federal appeals court to delay Abraham's formal recommendation on the site, saying Abraham and his agency ignored federal law and exceeded their jurisdiction in the matter.

"It could be the end of the whole ballgame with a few court appearances," Mayor Oscar Goodman said in an interview. "But as a lawyer, I know not to make that kind of prognosis. I know this is going to be a long battle."

The petition was filed by Goodman, who is in the nation's capital this week for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The federal appeals court, according to federal nuclear waste law, is the court of jurisdiction for such a petition.

DOE lawyers had not immediately seen the court papers, a DOE spokesman said.

"It is difficult to understand how a recommendation yet to be made and acted on by the president, which would likely require congressional action ... would cause immediate harm given that Yucca Mountain would not begin receiving waste for nearly a decade from now," DOE spokesman Joe Davis said.

Abraham told Gov. Kenny Guinn on Jan. 10 that he would make the recommendation. By law, he had to wait 30 days.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been under study by the Department of Energy for years to determine if it would effectively isolate 77,000 tons of the nation's high-level nuclear waste away from the environment and humans for thousands of years. The waste is now stored on-site at the nation's 103 active nuclear reactors.

The court papers charge that Abraham's recommendation will reduce property values, the county's tax base and tourism. The recommendation will affect the county's population growth and cause "high levels of anxiety and stress" among its residents.

The court document filed today is one of several designed by Nevada officials to tie up the Yucca Mountain plan in court.

"Today's legal action represents our continued commitment to working with the governor and other elected officials as we pursue every option to keep Nevada from becoming the nation's nuclear waste dump," Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said in a written statement.

The petition is "helpful support" to a suit filed in December by Gov. Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa challenging DOE rules governing Yucca Mountain, Guinn said in a written statement.

Both court documents allege that DOE officials changed the original Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, which deemed that a national nuclear waste repository had to rely on its geographic feature to isolate waste. Nevada officials allege DOE officials know the Yucca site itself isn't suitable to contain waste, so they officially changed the rules in December. The new rules allow them to rely more on man-made waste containers.

The petition filed today asks the court to declare the new rules "inconsistent with applicable law."

State officials are considering future lawsuits if Bush recommends the site.

"We're going to use every legal means at our disposal to see this monster defeated," Goodman said.

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